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Tonight’s Academy Awards show kicks off with who else, Neil Patrick Harris, in a musical number. Then Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin appear, and we’re off to the races.
Who we won’t see: Nicole Kidman. The Oscar-winner is in Australia with husband Keith Urban and daughter Sunday Rose. Last night was Nicole’s mom’s 70th birthday, and they had a big celebration.
C’est Chic: Nile Rodgers, the multitasking seriously talented writer-producer-founder of R&B group Chic, has just turned in the first draft of his memoir to publisher Random House.
Rodgers is thinking of naming the book after his monster Sister Sledge hit “We Are Family.” That’s also the name of his and Nancy Hunt’s successful charitable foundation.
I told him last night at a party for “Hurt Locker” screenwriter Mark Boal that he should call the book “Upside Down.” That was Niles’ hit with Diana Ross many moons ago.
Monday night in Hollywood: The “Hurt Locker” Oscar momentum grows.
Harrison Ford, Keanu Reeves, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron – all were some of the hosts at a star studded gathering at Phillippe Chow restaurant. My spies say it was like an Oscar party.
Why not? “The Hurt Locker” has the DGA, the PGA and Cinematographers awards. It’s headed to a best picture win on March 7 inevitably with director Kathryn Bigelow reaping a big prize, too.
“Hurt Locker” star Jeremy Renner hit New York this week with a thunderclap. On Tuesday morning he and co-star Anthony Mackie were on the “Today” show when word came that Renner was nominated for an Academy Award — best actor. He and Mackie embraced. Back in September 2008, when “The Hurt Locker” debuted at the Toronto Film Festival, it was an indie film with no budget. The actors had no publicists. The whole thing was a crap shoot.
Now Mackie is rehearsing on Broadway for a major play. And Renner did “Letterman” and some other shows. I ran into him last night at the Greenwich Hotel having drinks. He’d just been at dinner up at Elaine’s with his manager Beth Holden and publicist Sue Patricola and the famed Bobby Zarem. When the waitresses at the Greenwich realized who he was, they fetched Renner his favorite drink: Woodford Reserve mash bourbon. It went down smooth. He was joined for a bit by Oscar Isaac, from the upcoming “Sucker Punch” and “Robin Hood.” Isaac just found out his long-awaited “Agora” opens in May.
“Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow beat her ex-husband last night.
Bigelow won best director and best picture for “The Hurt Locker” at the Critics’ Choice Awards, thus trouncing her ex-husband James Cameron and his computer-generated “Avatar.”
In what is the most telling awards show pre-Academy Awards, the Critics’ Choice Awards on VH1 often accurately predicts the Oscar. Last night at the Hollywood Palladium, the well-produced two-hour telecast was the kick-off for awards season.
Looking for an Oscar first? Here’s one: Kathryn Bigelow, director of the much-praised and serious “The Hurt Locker,” could be in the running for best director against her ex-husband.
Bigelow was married from 1989-91 to “Avatar” director James Cameron.
Their movies could not be more different. “The Hurt Locker” is indeed a serious piece of work about soldiers in the war in Iraq. It’s got a terrific original screenplay by Mark Boal, whom Bigelow is said to be dating. It’s also got at least two Oscar-worthy lead performances by Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner.
“Avatar” is, on the other hand, a masterpiece of computer generation. It has a shopworn plot with extremely bad dialogue. (My favorite line comes from Sigourney Weaver, announcing about planet Pandora: “There’s something going on with the biology there.” Hilarious.) “Avatar” has no acting, as such, but gorgeous art, and the most realistic 3D ever. And blue people.
“The Hurt Locker” has made only $13 million and is about to be released on DVD. “Avatar” cost around $500 million, according to the New York Times, and should make about $100 million on its opening weekend just from curiosity.
One similarity: Many people in each movie get blown up. The difference is that “The Hurt Locker” characters are real, and their fates are dramatic. The explosions in “Avatar” are fake, fun and created by aliens.
