Thanks to Mimi for the tip РThe Meryl Streep forum has posted some photos of Streep on the set of The Iron Lady.  You can view them all here.  We have collected a few choice images for you.
Both the Gurus of Gold and Tom O’Neil’s Gold Derby have been assembling predictions. ¬†We will be building our Big Fat Predictions chart some time today. ¬†The interesting thing to note is that, while most of the predictors are predicting a split between The King’s Speech for Picture (seems all but a certainty) and a win for David Fincher for The Social Network – has there ever been a case where a respectable director swept the critics awards but lost the DGA then won the Oscar? ¬†I don’t think so. ¬†They are not in the business of doing anyone favors, as we’ve seen throughout their 83 year history. ¬†It’s more likely it will be The King’s Speech and Hooper, as Kris Tapley is predicting. ¬†Tapley is also predicting The King’s Speech to win in editing, which would definitely indicate a sweep. ¬†Anne Thompson is going out on a limb with two of her predictions – the first is Annette Bening for Best Actress and the second is Helena Bonham Carter for The King’s Speech.
The last of the guild awards will choose its winner this weekend. ¬†The Eddie is probably the second most important guild award after the DGA – the reason for this is that they’ve been around a very long time, a lot longer than the majority of the guild awards that are handed out now, like the SAG, like the PGA, etc. ¬†The Eddie has a long history of being matched up with Oscar’s Best Picture; it is incredibly rare for a film to win Best Pic without an editing nom and it starts with the Eddie.
Since 2001, the Eddie and the Oscar have matched up 100% with wins, and out of those six of them won Best Picture. ¬†It’s a decent record – just a smidge over 50%, so that’s not really DGA heft but it’s more heft than any other guild.
This year’s nominees:
The only one of these that probably can’t win is Inception because it wasn’t nominated for the Oscar – bizarre, I know, but it just wasn’t. ¬†127 Hours took its place. My prediction here is The Social Network because it deserves it. ¬†But since the guilds have been going for The King’s Speech with such enthusiasm it could win here, clean-sweeping the majors. ¬†I could also see The Fighter or Black Swan taking it. ¬†Probably not 127 Hours. ¬†I have to think that the editors will really do their job and choose the most deserving but one can never underestimate the power of the heart light. ¬†¬†Prediction: The Social Network (but I won’t be shocked if The King’s Speech takes it)
Awards Daily’s master tabulator Rob has finished polishing the algorithms for this year’s 2nd Annual Simulate Oscar Ballot Experiment. Already we’ve agreed to rethink some of our original intentions to better reflect the spirit of fun we all hope to find in our ideal Oscar experience. So this year for the final round we’re tossing out all the vague and unwieldy instructions to guess what an AMPAS member might do, or to vote for nominees “we think” might win. We’ll find out what the Academy thinks and wants all too soon, right? This ballot has been created for AD Readers’ entertainment so we’re asking simply: Vote for what makes you happy. Looks like nobody’s going to give any of us exactly what we want across the board, so we’re each responsible for our own Oscargasm. Vote with your “heart” (and if your heart is somehow wired in and networked with your brain, all the better.)
Another terrific new feature Rob has added this year is a set of individual demographic questions. This info (confidential & anonymous) might provide some interesting insight into how various groups display a range of inclinations for “certain kinds of tastes”. So let’s take the nominee slate AMPAS has handed us and find the best balance. Unleash your liberated opinions and express your fondest Oscar desires. Here’s the ballot. Have at it, gang.
Owen Gleiberman and Lisa Scharzbaum have assembled ten examples of¬†Oscar’s Best picture where the AMPAS awarded the wrong film — by wrong, we have to assume several factors at play: the undeniable “epic,” the sweepie sweeps and heart vs. other bodily organs. ¬†But other factors: money made at the box office, unification of “the people” who really really liked that movie once, celebrating a director whose time has come, and/or a really great publicity team winning the game (let’s face it; half the time this is the reason).
10. Forrest Gump vs. Pulp Fiction
You won’t catch me quoting Mama in¬†Forrest Gump and saying ”stupid is as stupid does.” But jeepers, Bubba! While the Oscar went to a gumbo of a feel-good movie about a simple Alabama fella who runs real fast and shows up for all the key events in the late 20th century without paying attention, Academy voters missed the headline: Oscar-worthy¬†Pulp Fiction had reinvented the language of American moviemaking, becoming an instant classic. It deserved the prize royale. ‚ÄîLisa Schwarzbaum
09. The Last Emperor (they don’t say vs. Broadcast News but I’ll say it)
There are years when ”prestige” is the ultimate Oscar catnip. That was certainly the case when Bernardo Bertolucci’s frilly and gorgeous, dramatically bloodless historical drama about the Chinese emperor Pu Yi took home the big award.¬†The Last Emperor is a fabulous piece of wallpaper, but it’s really just a so-so movie, especially compared to the year’s other potential winners: the juicy media love triangle¬†Broadcast News, the daffy-sublime¬†Moonstruck, or (not an ”Oscar movie,” but in a more honest world it would be) the he’s-just-not-that-into-you zeitgeist feminist revenge thriller¬†Fatal Attraction. ‚ÄîOwen Gleiberman
Courtesy of People Mag:
Makes two drinks
• ½ cup half and half
• 4 oz. white chocolate, roughly chopped
• 2 oz. vodka
• 2 oz. simple syrup
• 2 tsp. chocolate syrup
• 1 tbs. black sugar crystals
1. In a small saucepan, gently heat half and half. Off heat, gradually whisk in white chocolate until melted. Transfer mixture to a bowl and refrigerate until cool. Stir in vodka and simple syrup.
2. Dip rims of martini glasses in water, then dip in black sugar. Put 1 tsp. chocolate syrup in each martini glass. Tilt glass to form stripes. Pour in martini mixture and serve.
Anyone else have any Oscar-themed recipes for drinks or chow?
From the first note of the first frame of The Social Network we are immersed in David Fincher‚Äôs senses. The soundtrack roars immediately to life with The White Stripes pulsating guitar riff on ‚ÄúBall and Biscuit.‚Äù We are in a darkened bar. The characters are talking so fast you can barely make out what they‚Äôre saying. You might not get what they’re saying but your senses have already come alive — the words match the music, the editing matches the words and good luck figuring out what‚Äôs coming next.
But then the rattle of Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue. “Did you know there are more people with genius IQs living in China than there are people of any kind living in the the United States?” “That can’t possibly be true.” The two young stars face-off. One is talking a mile a minute with a mind faster than anything else in the room. But he’s getting it back pretty good from the girl sitting opposite him. And then he drops it, “How do you distinguish yourself from a population who all got 1600 on their SATs?”
