Let’s just say that Oscar Week ground me down like never before. And, I’m still a little stung by Jennifer Lawrence’s lateness for the red carpet arrivals. Usually she’s there early showing off a lovely red dress and generally trying to avoid my camera. But this time she showed up nearly ten minutes into the live telecast and stopped only few a minute for a few choice shots (see below).

I was there waiting with my #believe sign when she finally showed. Well worth the wait…Yet, I digress.

A few, uh, spa days were in order far, far from Hollywood. My feet still sore from running around three towns of red carpets and my ears still ringing from photographers imploring movie stars to look into their cameras, something struck me: when did we get so lazy?

Everyone wants a short cut now. Technology might be the culprit. It’s always there allowing the slacker who doesn’t want to put in the time a fraudulent avenue to appear more talented. It used to be that talent was organic. It was yours and you created it. You owned it. You studied film or music or art or past ad campaigns. Now, there’s a app for that…and it’s trademarked.

Can’t sing? No worries, there’s Auto-Tune.

Too lazy to study film? Not a problem. There’s a video recorder in everyone’s pocket now with editing by numbers.

Right in the style of Hemingway, paint a field of flowers just like Monet…all you need is a computer and some gall.

Journalism degree? What for? Ambush a drunk celebrity, take a picture, sell it to TMZ and BAM!…You’re a journalist!

She’s on the cover of Adweek!

America has become a place where fraudulent talent and faux celebrity is home. Today, you get famous if you’re clever on Vine or stupid enough on YouTube. The very fact that we have elevated an entire clan of Kardashians to superstar status verifies this explicitly.

You know who I feel sorry for?: Photographers.

No line of work has been more devalued. The smartphone has turned everyone into a photographer. It wasn’t long ago that a trained photographer took the time to select the right type of film, the right type of lens, exposure and lighting and then develop their own pictures in a darkroom. Once upon a time if there was a calamity, the newspaper would dispatch an entire team of reporters and photographers to cover the scene. Now, by the time the photographer gets there, he can’t get close enough to shot a decent picture because of the teeming horde of people clicking away on their iPhone cameras.

Relationships? People don’t event earn those nowadays with all of the shortcuts available. It used to be you’d have to haunt bars, wedding or funerals, honing your charming pickup lines to woo someone the old fashioned way. Now you get on Tinder or Grindr and your date appears as if she were delivered via UPS.

From photography to relationships, we need to get back to basics, like showing up on time for the red carpet.

Jen’s wild ride through the red carpet…

The post Laziness appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Okay, so where am I? 

It’s late February so that means that I’m on the red carpet at the Academy Awards®, awash with the symphonic melody of whirling cameras, screaming photographers and swooning fans.

The statues need a good polish / credit: Richard Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Usually I begin my Oscars® Backstage column with an ode to my agent and my annual phone call imploring him to draw a map for me so I can earn my own eight-pound 24K statuette. This year? I got voice mail. Time for a new agent?

To be continued…

After his two-word reply (“I will”), I was buoyed by the prospects. Multiple scripts in hand and a fully rehearsed Oscars acceptance speech in hand has gotten me nothing.

Without further droning on, here’s my take on the the happenings backstage at the 88th Academy Awards:

credit: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH: 
Brie Larson, Room
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Q. You talked a lot about your journey and what it’s taken to get here today.  What advice would you give to people who haven’t achieved their dreams yet?

A. Oh, any dream?

Q. Any dream.

A. Any dream.  Oy, that’s a hard one.  You just have to do it.  I mean, I wish that there was any sort of rules or code, but in fact, I think the way you get there is by breaking it, by listening to what’s happening inside of yourself.  I personally had many moments of crossroads, probably hundreds of moments of crossroads where I could go the way that people were telling me to go, or I could go the way that felt right within me.  And it took me 20 years to be standing here on this stage, but I wouldn’t want it any other way:  To be so grateful for all of the hardships that it took to get here and to not be discouraged by it.  I think to live this life it’s a bizarre combination of being plastic and incredibly stubborn and also really curious about what this life holds; to have no expectation, but to have an idea about a beautiful horizon that’s in front of [you and|and you] constantly moving towards it.

Q. Can you give an example in your career of a time where you feel like you really learned to stand up for yourself?

The Media Guy at the Oscars – five straight years.

A. Oh, I mean, many times.  In particular, there were many times that I would go into auditions and casting directors would say, It’s really great.  Really love what you’re doing, but we’d love for you to come back in a jean miniskirt and high heels, and those were always moments of a real fork in the road, because I had no ‑‑ there’s no reason for me to show up in a jean miniskirt and heels other than the fact that you want to create some fantasy, and you want to have this moment that you can reject.  That’s the craziest part.  And so for me, I ‑‑ I personally always rejected that moment.  I tried maybe once, and it always made me feel terrible because they were asking me to wear a jean miniskirt and heels to be sexy, but a jean miniskirt and heels does not make me feel sexy.  It makes me feel uncomfortable.  So learning for me what it took to feel confident, and strong, and take what these people were trying to get to exude out of me come from a personal place, and from my place, and trying to represent in film women that I know, women that I understand, complicated women, women that are inside of me, that became my mission.  And every time I was put in front of an opportunity where I had to decide in those moments, do I or do I not wear a jean miniskirt?  They became huge moments for me of confidence.

Q. I just wanted to ask a question.  With SPOTLIGHT winning Best Picture, one of the really devastating scenes in ROOM was involving the media, and I read that that was an important scene to you, and I just wondered if you could expand on that and say kind of how you feel about that.

A. Ooh, about the media, to a bunch of media people?

Q. Well, that scene specifically.

A. Okay.  Ballsy.  Yeah.  It ‑‑ it’s an important thing to me because boundaries are really difficult to create for yourself, and especially if you are not somebody like my character I’m playing in ROOM who is not seasoned in boundaries and isn’t as aware.  Like a lot of us in the industry, if we watch that scene in the movie, we can kind of see the train coming, and we know, Oh, this is going to be too much.  She’s not ready for this.  But for her, there’s no one there that’s on the inside that’s explaining to her that she has strength and boundaries, and that this is not a proper way of going about this next phase in her life.  So I think from the journalist’ point of view, always remembering that we are human beings.  We are sensitive, loving human beings that deeply at the core of ourselves are worried that we are unlovable.  And I think if we can constantly keep that in our heads, especially when we’re interviewing and try instead to get into the soul of a person, and not just worry so much about maybe a earpiece that’s in your ear that’s, you know, your boss telling you that you have to ask something 30 times.  I understand that you’re trying to keep your job; but at the same time, we are people, and I think if we can get back to the humanity of this and respect boundaries, we are going to go a long way, and we are going to get real truth instead of performances for TV.

Q. What a wonderful run you’ve had this awards season.  You know, you won an Oscar for playing Ma.  Unfortunately, many people have been in that situation.  What does your Oscar win say for all of the victims out there who have been victimized?

A. You know, I don’t know.  I don’t necessarily think an Oscar win changes anything for those women.  I do hope that though ‑‑ and in the core of it when we want to talk about feeling trapped, and that can be trapped in a way that is metaphor or a physical representation of that, we want to talk about abuse, the many different ways that we as humans can be abused or feel confined.  I hope that this is a story that honestly changes people and allows them to be free.  To me, making this movie was my own search for freedom and breaking free of my own personal boundaries.  And I hope that when people watch this, they realize that they have it in themselves to break free of whatever it is that’s holding them back.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH: 
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

credit: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q. What do you love about being a storyteller?

A. (Leonardo DiCaprio)  Look, I grew up in East Los Angeles.  I was very close to the Hollywood studio system.  But I felt detached from it my whole life.  And to have had parents that have allowed me to be a part of this industry, to take me on auditions every day after school, and to tell stories like this has been my dream ever since I was 4 years old.  And this film to me was exemplary in the sense that I got to work with a director.  And all the things we spoke about off camera during the making of this movie transferred their way on screen.  This was true storytelling.  We really got to have a collaborative experience together, and this was a journey that I’ll never forget with Alejandro.  It took up, you know, such a large portion of our lives, but as a result, we have a great film to look back on for years to come.

Q. So I would like to know, where are you going to put that Oscar?  Yeah, a very easy question.  And for you, that second Oscar?

Q. Everyone was cheering in the room here when you won.  How was the atmosphere in the room at the ceremony?  How does it feel now that it’s a reality and what would you remember as the biggest challenge of this film?

A. I felt very honored, quite frankly.  This whole thing has been an amazing experience.  And, you know, for me to be able to sit there and not only talk about the film, but to talk about something that I’ve been duly as obsessed with besides cinema, and that’s, you know, our environment and climate change.  To be able to speak about that in a platform of, I don’t know, hundreds of millions of people that are watching this, to me, like I said, this is the most existential crisis our civilization has ever known and I wanted to speak out about that tonight because, simultaneously while doing this brilliant film that Alejandro directed, I’ve been doing a documentary about climate change which has brought me to Greenland, to China, to India to speak with the world’s leading experts on this issue.  And the time is now.  It’s imperative that we act.  And I really wanted tonight ‑‑ I feel so overwhelmed with, you know, gratitude for what happened tonight.  But I feel there is a ticking clock out there.  There’s a sense of urgency that we all must do something proactive about this issue.  And certainly with this upcoming election, the truth is this:  If you have do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in modern science or empirical truths and you will be on the wrong side of history.  And we need to all join together and vote for leaders who care about the future of this civilization and the world as we know it.

Q. It’s been such a long time coming, and it seems like the whole world is rooting for you.  The internet, fans, press, there was a WhiteHouse.gov petition to get you an Oscar at one point.  Are you conscious of how many people are supporting you?  How does it feel that people care so much that you get this Oscar?

A. It all feels incredibly surreal.  You know, it’s surreal because you can’t reach out and physically meet everybody.  You hear it on the internet, you hear it from other people, and, you know, the truth is, we always strive for the best in what we do.  But this year in particular, I’ve been overwhelmed with such support.  Really, truly, by so many fans and so many people in the industry.  It’s quite shocking, actually.  And what can you say except I’m very grateful, I really am.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH: 
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

credit: Phil McCarten / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q. I just wanted to know, one, where will you be putting it, and two, you said in your speech you weren’t sure how the Academy could separate your performances but tonight you outpunched Rocky and I want to know how that feels and if that’s particularly meaningful to you.

A. I don’t know where I’ll put it yet.  I don’t feel I ‑‑ I don’t know.  I find people who come up and say things, you know, about competing as actors and I know that it’s necessary to make a show out of it, but those actors are so good, I would be happy just to be ‑‑ I feel like more I’m a spokesman when you win than something that’s better than the other nominees.  And I know that there’s so many wonderful nominees just outside the five of us:  Idris Elba and Paul Dano and all kinds of actors too, so I don’t take it too seriously.

Q. When they announced your name, and they were like Mark R… did you think they were going to say Mark Ruffalo?

A. No, but Mark Ruffalo told me on the Red Carpet that that had happened to him at the BAFTAs, that whoever was giving the award had slowed down after the “R” and a number of people on his team, as people call it, had looked around to congratulate him, and then the dreadful y‑l‑a‑n‑c‑e had come forward and crushed his dreams.

Q. Steven Spielberg actually tried twice before to get you in a movie and you, I can’t believe this, said no.  What were those films?

A. That was the same film, EMPIRE OF THE SUN, and he offered me a small part.  I think it must have been 1986.  And I turned that down, and then he came back and offered me a better part, and I accepted it, but then a theater director who I very much wanted to work with, had wanted to work with for a number of years, also offered me a part.  And Steven very nicely said I could step away from the film if I wanted to but I had to tell him in four hours, and I did decide after those four hours to step away and do the season of plays.  And though the season of plays didn’t go that well, I met my wife on the first day and now I’ve been able to work with Steven again.  So it turned out to be an all right call.

Q. You’ve talked about your speech a little bit.  It’s being called one of the classiest of the night so far from what I’m seeing.  Did you think about what you would say before you got up there or was it all just in the heat of the moment from your heart?

A. I always think about what I’m going to say, and I choose two or three options.  I had to open Sam Wanamaker’s Globe Theatre once and there were seven opening nights, and I had to make a lot of speeches.  And I found that if you over‑prepare a speech, it’s like an over‑prepared acting performance.  It’s best to have a few different options and a few different endings and beginnings.  I almost dropped the whole thing, actually, after the very funny interviews in Compton because I really longed that I was a black actor at that moment receiving an award.  But I didn’t drop it.  No, I make it up partly, but I know the general things I want to say.  I know I wanted to praise Steven and I wanted to praise my fellow nominees and supporting actors generally, because I really enjoy the work of supporting actors when I go to the cinema.  And then there were other things I could have said but I didn’t quite get there.  No, I actually said some ‑‑ now I’m remembering.  I think it’s best to try and be spontaneous with preparation.

Q. For this film did you shoot on location somewhere interesting?  Did you get to do anything there and enjoy the location where you shot, or locations?

A. We shot on the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin which is where the actual exchange took place, and it was incredibly cold and we had to wear all kinds of things in our shoes and in our gloves and then Chancellor Merkel came along about 2:00 in the morning, with no hat, no scarf, no gloves, and stayed for about 45 minutes talking with everyone, looking at the camera and everything.  She was a little disappointed I didn’t speak Russian, she saw through me right away.  But that was very remarkable to make a film of an event that had actually taken place in that space and that’s one of the pleasures of working with someone like Spielberg.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH: 
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

credit: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q. Do you feel that your success and the success with THE DANISH GIRL will open the door for additional LGBT stories to be told in Hollywood?

A. I definitely hope so.  I came on this film only two years ago and I know that this was not an easy film to get made and it has been almost 15 years that one of our producers, Gail, had worked on it and to see kind of the cultural change with just me over the years since I actually finished the film with, I don’t know, with Caitlyn Jenner coming out, with TRANSPARENT and TANGERINE, it’s like a social change and I just wish that ‑‑ in the same way that this film has been so educational for me and with so many people that I got to meet and in preparation for it I hope that it can open up an even wider conversation, if our film can be a part of that discussion.

Q. Can you describe what was your first thought that went through your mind when they announced your name?

A. I’m trying to remember anything that just happened in the last five minutes.  I had my mom next to me which was just ‑‑ I used to every night ‑‑ well, this night every year I woke up and set the alarm clock at 2:00 a.m. to watch this to celebrate in a distance film and people behind films, and to have my mom’s hand and to experience being just here in this room has been pretty cool.

Q. Congratulations.  Who will you be celebrating with tonight and what will you be doing to celebrate?

A. I hope I’m going to get the chance to go out, have fun and have a glass of wine and meet up with my family and my entire crew that is here and my friends.  So, and I even have a shorter dress in front so I can bounce and dance in it, so that’s what I’m going to do.
bring that out in your clothes, which is fun.

Q. There has been a lot of talk about diversity, obviously at the Oscars and in Hollywood in general.  I was wondering what your take was on Chris Rock tonight in his opening monologue?

A. I thought he was great.  I just admired him.  I admire him as a big comedian, and I’m so happy that he came in tonight and just brought up both a lot of laughs and brought a lot of reality issues in the same way and I’m very happy that he is our host tonight.

Q. What piece of advice would you give to young girls around the world?

A. I don’t know.  I actually on stage said to my parents who were there and who have always told me, like, you can actually do it and it has been so many doubts and they are still there and I guess because there’s some people who have really ‑‑ [interruption] ‑‑ did I miss something?  Well, what I mean is that apparently a lot of things can be possible, things that I would never, ever, ever have believed in and that is only because I have had some incredible women supporting me so that is probably what I wanted to say to some young girls, just keep on doing it, I guess.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH: 
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
Directing

credit: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q. What does it mean to win twice in a row?

A. Well, I couldn’t be more happy.  Every film is like ‑‑ is like ‑‑ is like a son.  So you cannot like more one son than the other.  I love this film as I loved BIRDMAN, and I think this experience and sharing this with Leo and with all the nominees, part of the crew that we are celebrating tonight.  I think the award that I’m getting is on behalf of all of them and they make possible.  So I couldn’t be more happy, especially because we are celebrating tonight, and that’s fantastic.

Q. What do you love about being a storyteller?

A. For me, it just basically I think that life is so uncontrollable.  I think we are all the time, you know, it’s impermanent, everything.  And I think that storytelling is a way for us to feel, in a way, can confront a huge amount of emotions and possibilities and feel, you know, beautiful and horrible emotions, but always in a way being in a comfortable zone knowing there is another story that can teach us a lot.  So it’s a way to control life, you know, to have an oxygen capsule of life without suffering for real, that can teach us for when the time comes, for being in love or do we have a problem, we can suddenly get what is that idea.  So storytelling is, I think, oxygen for life that protect us.  You know, that’s how I feel.

Q. How does it feel to be the director who finally did this for Leo?

A. I want to say that it’s funny because the conception how a film is being made, I think, is wrong.  This is an intervening collaboration.  You know, everything is connected.  So when Chivo won, we all won.  Because what Chivo photographed was the wardrobe, was the makeup, was the performance of Leo, was the ideas of the original.  When I won, everybody won.  So, I mean, all of the actors, everything.  When Leo ‑‑ so I didn’t give nothing to Leo, Leo won by himself.  But we are absolutely interdependent, we depend on the other.  So every award of every film, honestly, it’s funny enough, as everything in life is, interconnected and it reflects the effort of hundreds of people.  So that’s what is amazing about today, that the awards that we won, it is celebrated by all the team no matter if somebody won or not.  And truly, that’s very true, when you work for months with a team like that, you know, that we were basically part of the success of any territory.  We were all involved in anything.

The Big Four
Oscar-winners Rylance, Larson, DiCaprio and Vikander pose backstage with their Oscar for Achievement in acting:

credit: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Past Oscars Backstage Columns:
2015 – 2014 – 2013 – 2012

NOTES ON THE SCORECARD:

Who wore it better…?

Heidi Klum…?

…or Ann Wedgeworth in Steel Magnolias?

Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron backstage (notice the Media Guy with the camera on the left side)…

credit: Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Leo at the engraving station…

Larson after winning the Oscar for best actress…

credit: Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Lady Gaga, barefoot and in a white suit, danced on the balls of her bare feet in the stage right wings as she waited to sing “Til it Happens to You…”

The sexual abuse survivors who had taken the stage behind Lady Gaga screamed, “We love you, Leo!” as he high-fived them. When Larson arrived, the survivors screamed even louder and pumped their fists. “Give us a hug!” they implored the actress, whose film, Room, centered on a sexual abuse survivor. “Yes, yes, yes!” Larson said, rushing into their arms.

After performing, Gaga ran off the stage, down a hallway and around a corner to change her clothes, to be in her seat before the announcement of her category, original song.

These are the droids I was looking for…

Kerry Washington and Superman Henry Cavill ready themselves for the next awards presentation…

Finally, my top six favorites from the red carpet:

5) Matt and Whoopi…

4) The allure of Rachel McAdams…

3) The class of Cate Blanchett…

2) A titanic meeting with Leo and Kate…

And my #1 favorite: Jennifer Lawrence…

The post Backstage at the Oscars: 2016 appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

“Oh yes barkeep, one vodka tonic, dirty with three olives and chase it with an Oscar…” 

About a year ago, I spent an afternoon with an Oscar winner who took out their shiny new 8.5 pound, 24 carat statuette everywhere we went.

Talk about attention…Uncle Oscar was best attention grabber this side of a Bugatti in South Beach.

Thinking back, I wondered where I would put my Oscar if I ever earned one. Would I take it on a tour, ala the Stanley Cup. Would I put it in safe deposit box? Build an entire room around it and protect it with security laser beams?

I’m still thinking on this one.

But what about the stars who win the magical golden trophy? Where do they have theirs?

Let’s take a trip around the trophy room:

REFRIGERATORS, PIANOS, and SOCK DRAWERS…

Timothy Hutton
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Ordinary People

After taking home the trophy, it was rumored that Hutton threw a party and his sister placed the Oscar in the fridge next to the beer so party guests wouldn’t miss it. Supposedly, its still there.

Tom Hanks
Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role, Philadelphia and Forrest Gump 

Hanks has his on the family trophy shelf “next to the soccer trophies,…I think the World’s Greatest Mom trophy from Mother’s Day is up there as well.”

Anna Paquin
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, The Piano

Paquin, only 11 when she took home the big prize, kept it hidden in her “sock drawer”.

Jennifer Lawrence
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role, Silver Linings Playbook

The perpetual queen of the tripping incident (and my proposed future ex-wife) gave hers to her parents. It now resides on the top of their piano in Kentucky.

…BATHROOMS…

Kate Winslet
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role, The Reader

Winslet is on record that she keeps her Best Actress Oscar on “the back of the loo…Everybody wants to hold it and go ‘Oh, my gosh’, and, ‘How heavy is it?’ So I figured if I put it in the loo, then people can avoid the whole, ‘Where’s your Oscar?’ thing.”

Jodie Foster, The Accused and Silence of the Lambs
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role

Before moving her princess treasures to a trophy case in her study, Foster housed them in her bathroom, noting: “They looked good with the faucets.”

Emma Thompson
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role, Howard’s End
Adapted Screenplay, Sense and Sensibility

Thompson keeps both of her Oscars in her bathroom, because: “They look too outré anywhere else. They’re great big, gold, shiny things.” (Yeah, I had to look up outré too.)

She’s not alone – Susan Sarandon (Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role, Dead Man Walking), Lionel Richie (Music, Original Song, “Say You, Say Me” from White Nights) and Sean Connery (Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, The Untouchables) all to keep Uncle Oscar alongside their baths and bidets.

…with the CHICKENS…

Russell Crowe, Gladiator
Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role

Hoping his hens lay better eggs, Crowe keeps his in a chicken coop on his ranch in Australia

MEANWHILE…

…setups for the 88th Academy Awards continue:

The post OSCAR WEEK 2016: Bathrooms and Chickens appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Behind the Scenes – Rehearsals continue at the Dolby Theatre.

If there’s anything you can bank on, it’s my Oscars picks. Since I started covering the Academy Awards five years ago, my picks have been scorchingly accurate in the major categories with 29 out of 35 correct selections. Last year I banked a little heavy on Boyhood and Birdman and it cost me. This year I have expanded my prognostications to nine categories from my usual six. Break a leg, Leo….and good luck to the rest:

Best Picture
The Revenant

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Brie Larson, Room

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Alicia Vikander, Danish Girl

Directing
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant

Animated Feature Film
Inside Out

Foreign Language Film
Son of Saul, Hungary

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Straight Outta Compton, Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

SIDEBARS

I have to say that I’m addicted to the sidebars that the Academy hands out for news and liners columns. They’re like Hershey’s Kisses or Lay’s potato chips, you just can’t stop snacking on them:

• In 2011, the balloting rules first allowed for the possibility of between five and ten nominees for Best Picture. For the first three years, there were nine nominees. For the past two years, there have been eight.
• Steven Spielberg has set the record for the most Best Picture nominations for an individual producer with nine.

So combined, Spielberg and I have two Oscars…not bad!

• In the Acting categories, eight individuals are first-time nominees (Bryan Cranston, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Brie Larson, Charlotte Rampling, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rachel McAdams and Alicia Vikander). Five of the nominees are previous Acting winners (Eddie Redmayne, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Winslet).
• At age 25, Jennifer Lawrence is the youngest four-time Acting nominee.
• Sylvester Stallone, who received his first Acting nomination in 1976 for Rocky, is the sixth person nominated for playing the same role in two different films. He follows Bing Crosby as Father O’Malley in Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945); Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986); Peter O’Toole as Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968); Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974); and Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). Of these, only Bing Crosby and Paul Newman won Oscars (in 1944 and 1986, respectively).
• Roger Deakins has the most nominations for Cinematography of any living person with 13. Charles B. Lang, Jr. and Leon Shamroy share the all-time record with 18 nominations each
• Sandy Powell now has the most nominations for Costume Design of any living person with 12. The overall record in the category belongs to Edith Head with 35 nominations.
• John Williams extends his record number of music scoring nominations with 45. His overall total of 50 nominations (including five for Original Song) increases his record for the most Academy Award nominations of any living person (the only person with more is Walt Disney at 59).
• Thomas Newman’s nomination for Original Score for Bridge of Spies is his 13th and brings the total for members of the Newman family (Alfred, Lionel, Emil, Thomas, David and Randy) to 89, more than any other family.
• Two Original Song nominations are from documentaries this year, a first: “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction and “Til It Happens To You” from The Hunting Ground. Previous nominations were for “More” from Mondo Cane (1963); “I Need To Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Oscar in 2006; “Before My Time” from Chasing Ice (2012); and “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me (2014).
• With his two nominations for Sound Mixing (for Bridge of Spies and Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Andy Nelson has tied Kevin O’Connell’s record for the most individual nominations in the category with 20.
• Inside Out is the ninth animated feature to receive a Writing nomination. To date, none has won. With his fourth Writing nomination this year, Pete Docter has tied Andrew Stanton for the most writing nominations for animated films.

Forty years ago, Jack took home the gold for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

#TBT – The 48th Academy Awards

May Oscars 2016 Be as Nuts as the 1976 Academy Awards … Brian Raftery’s column on wired.com deserves a read. He writes:

FORTY YEARS AGO, Oscar voters were grappling with many of the same quandaries facing the Academy today. Should they reward the man-versus-nature tale with the famously troubled production, or the ripped-from-the-headlines true-tale drama? Will that unfairly overlooked smash-hit musical drama with the predominantly black cast get a trophy? And when Jack Nicholson keeps his sunglasses on for the entire ceremony, is he doing it for cool-cred reasons, or to simply hide the fact that he’s napping? 

As it turned out, the 48th annual Academy Awards ceremony—which featured such films as Jaws, Dog Day Afternoon, and Mahogany—wound up raising more questions than it answered. The event, now viewable on YouTube, took place halfway through a decade that had begun with a surge of personal, provocative, and rule-crooking new films, including some of that year’s clearly troubled nominees—not just Dog Day, but also contenders like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the way-darker-than-you-remember Shampoo. Meanwhile, the whole industry was in flux: New stars had taken over, old genres were falling out of favor, and technologies were on the way that would change movie-making (and movie-going) forever. Read more…

AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER


“We All Dream In Gold”

I try not to suck up too much, but the magic of the 2016 We All Dream In Gold commercial for the Oscars live telecast cannot be contained. Watch it and try to avoid getting the chills…simply impossible:

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I picked up my Oscars credential (sorry, no pictures allowed of the priceless, laminated pass to the biggest awards show on the planet) and was dazzled with the new Oscars print and web media campaign art. I’ve been part of many creative teams that produced some classics for television and print…remember these gems:

But, once I saw the new art for the 88th Academy Awards, I was immediately envious. Envious of the final result. Envious of the process to arrive at the final product. Envious of being selected to be part of the process.

The art is simply everything you could ever want from Hollywood:

Bold.
Imaginative.
Dreamy.
Powerful.
Diverse (!).

And, the words crafted to detail the art is just as perfect. I pulled this copy from this official liners provided by the Academy:

The 2016 Oscar campaign illustrates the emotional power of movies and their ability to inspire all of us to achieve our dreams. Movies remind us that imagination is limitless. The Oscar is, at once, a representation of excellence in film and a tangible symbol that dreams can–and do–come true. 

“The Dream campaign embodies what people love about the Oscars—the range of emotions and excitement that comes with those unforgettable moments in a live show,” said Christina Kounelias, Academy CMO. “Fans also look for the comedy and the unexpected, and that’s what they’ll get with our host, Chris Rock. His comedic perspective will be a great complement to the more dramatic moments.”

Two years ago I wrote about dreaming on the red carpet, and this year the Academy shows illustrates that, yes, we do all dream in gold.

The post OSCAR WEEK 2016: Yes, We All Dream in Gold! appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

It’s Oscar® Week and who’s more excited than me?

No one, that’s who!

Between hockey games at Staples Center I’ll be spending a whole lotta time at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater participating in the overview symposiums. Take a look at this lineup:

February 23rd – OSCAR WEEK: SHORTS / Hosted by director Jennifer Yuh.

February 28th – OSCAR WEEK: RED CARPET and the LIVE SHOW / Hosted by Chris Rock from the Dolby Theatre.

I’ll try to be prompt sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning to deliver my annual Backstage at the Oscars column that always seems to capture the imagination the readers. (Okay, I may have over stated that one…) As a primer, bone up on the past year’s columns:

2015     2014     2013     2012

Oscars Week has me a little giddy over my Oscars notebook that’s coming in the mail. I highly recommend getting yours:

On an opposite note, I’m still reeling over the Academy suing the Oscar swag bag company over copyright infringement. What of the fitness training sessions with Jay Cardiello (valued at $1,400)? Or the year’s worth of Audi A4 rentals from Silvercar ($45,000)? Or my personal favorite, the $55,000 VIP all-access trip to Israel? My imagination goes wild for what you get for fifty grand in Israel! While my brain cramped up thinking of how I would pay $66,000 in taxes for the $200,000 swag bag was quickly quelled as I got to see how the Oscar statuettes are actually made…

Making of the Oscar Statuettes

All Making of the Oscars photos courtesy of Dorith Mous / ©A.M.P.A.S.

The 3D printed Oscar image is cleaned prior to making the production mold.

A rubber mold of the 3D print is made and used to make a wax pattern for each bronze Oscar casting.

The wax Oscars are reworked as necessary and attached to a plumbing system through which molten bronze flows into the ceramic shell mold.

After molten bronze is cast into the ceramic mold, the Oscars are cut loose from their plumbing systems and sanded and polished by hand.

The statues are then plated with 24 karat gold, given a final buff, and mounted on their bases. Since no one knows who the recipients are at this time, Polich Tallix staff will be on hand at the presentation ceremony to put nameplates on the bases after the Oscars have been presented.

Now, from the classy to the tasteless…


AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER

“You can almost taste the Bush”

Are you kidding me? Are you pulling my leg? Who is the agency that decided to present this ad to Premier Estates Wine? Forget that, who advertising executive at the winery greenlit this series of ads.

I mean, is your wine as tasteless as your advertising? Are the wines as bad as their creepy, sexist, objectifying adverts? Really, what were they thinking?

Thankfully, the Taste The Bush ads, an innuendo-laden throwback to sexist airline ads for the Australian wine maker has been banned for being offensive and objectifying women after making an obvious reference to oral sex. Thank goodness!

The online ad for Premier Estates Wine showed a woman with a strategically placed glass of red wine, using the tagline ‘you can almost taste the bush’.

The ad stars a brunette model saying ‘take this exquisite Aussie shiraz, a mere £5.99 a bottle’ and then taking a sip and adding: “Mmm, Luscious, earthy, bursting with fruit and spice.” She then places the glass down on a table in front of her – right in front of her crotch – and says: “Australia practically jumps out of the glass – in fact, some say you can almost taste the bush.”

UGH!

Not outraged yet, take a look:

Note to Premier Estates: If you want some quality ad concepts, give me a ring. I’ll be happy to present some at no charge! 

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