Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
For everyone who’s unhappy that Greta Gerwig didn’t get an Oscar nomination today, I have a good theory for what happened.
Gerwig also didn’t get a BAFTA nomination. But guess who did? Justine Triet, the French director of “Anatomy of a Fall,” who received a surprise Oscar nomination today. BAFTA — repping lots of non American voters — has quietly become a bellwether.
Triet’s BAFTA nom should have been a good predictor for the Oscars. There is now a huge foreign membership for the Academy Awards. And they are voting in foreign films for Best Picture and Director nominations.
How else to explain the big changes in the last few years? “Parasite” won, then “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” No one you know voted for the latter film. No one you know even liked it. But outside the US, I’ll bet those Academy members would have a different story. “EEAAO” was a ‘foreign film.’
This year, three of the nine Best Picture nominees are technically “foreign films” — “Past Lives,” “Anatomy,” and “Zone of Interest.” They are somewhat in English, but about Americans. This is extremely unusual, but it’s been a trend coming for a long time.
Greta lost her spot to Justin Triet. We knew three of the five Best Directors slots were already locked up with Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and Yorgos Lanthimos (who morphed from being a Greek filmmaker to an American/British one 9 years ago).
That left two spots, and they each went to “foreign films” — Triet for “Anatomy” and Jonathan Glazer for “Zone of Interest” (which I think is ridiculous). Those two cut out Gerwig and probably Alexander Payne. Those two– Triet and Glazer — overlap with the Oscars.
The Academy is changing, kids. You better change with it!
It’s been a day of digesting the Oscar nominations in a very competitive year.
If only there were eight slots in each acting category! That would make this all so much easier.
And if only the SAG nominations or anything else were an actual sign of what Academy voters were thinking. With these Oscars you can throw out the playbook!
Three actresses I’d have liked to see in the Best Category: Penelope Cruz, Fantasia, Margot Robbie. How could they not have made it? Cruz’s performance in “Ferrari” is like its own opera. She’s amazing. Fantasia is incredibly moving as Celie, singing out her heart in “The Color Purple.”
And then there’s Margot Robbie. There’s no other actress as hard working and consistently good. She made “Barbie” the movie happen, then created the character. She was also outstanding in the second “Suicide Squad” movie. In “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” she gave light to a dark film.
Another big miss: Leonardo DiCaprio in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Ernest as Leo played him is a befuddled character, torn between loving his family and being loyal to his uncle. I still think this one of Leo’s three best acting jobs ever, just a shade behind “Wolf of Wall Street.” But Academy voters may see him apart from regular actors at this point. He’s sort of a Special Case who has his Oscar, millions of dollars, gorgeous girlfriends, and a life of fantasy.
The other glaring omission, that I can’t explain, is Greta Gerwig for Best Director. She had a singular vision for “Barbie” and executed it like a 5 star chef. “Barbie” is a complete movie from top to bottom. The Directors Guild got that, they included her without fail. So what happened? Justine Triet’s surprise nomination, I think, owes more to the international additions to the Academy. They really embraced “Anatomy of a Fall,” despite France not choosing it as their official selection.
There are some proper choices, too. Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” got a lot of nods, with good reason. “Maestro” isn’t perfect — too much about the love life. But those performances by Cooper and Carey Mulligan are soaring. Like “Barbie,” this is a singular vision and you can feel it. If there were a 7th slot for directing, Cooper would have had it.
Of course, in directing, you always run into this problem. Five slots and at least two marquee names are a given — Scorsese and Nolan. So that limits the field. And Yorgos Lanthimos — he was a given this year because “Poor Things” is an off the wall creation. (I loved it.) That leaves two spots. The one I don’t get is Jonathan Glazer. I found “Zone of Interest” a monotonous dead end. Cooper or Alexander Payne would have been my choices.
Sidebar: congrats to Annette Bening. Her portrayal of Diana Nyad is exceptional. She’s never won an Oscar. Boy, does she deserve it!
Still, all the films that were launched in a timely fashion got something. Some studios should learn a lesson — if you wait until mid November, nothing will happen. We who write about these things sit and scratch our heads when by Halloween the buzz isn’t there for a film we saw in September and liked. How many times did we say “What happened to Origin?” for example. By that point, it’s just too late.
Kanye West, the world’s most infamous antisemite, has dropped a trailer for his “Vultures” project.
The film was made by a Montreal artist named Jon Rafman, who is Jewish, and who was accused on social media of such serious sexual misconduct that the New York Times reported the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC cancelled his show in 2020. (Two other museums cancelled shows also. Currently Rafman does have projects at other Canadian galleries.)
Only Kanye could come up with this combination. I’ve emailed Rafman to ask him about the fact that he’s Jewish. How could he be involved with West?
Rafman did issue a statement about his other accusations, denying everything. The link has since been removed from the web. He also filed a legal complaint against the newspaper and Twitter account that first reported the sexual misconduct complaints.
“Vultures” is an audio and visual experience. The original audio, still widely available, contains an antisemitic lyric that I’m not going to repeat here. But it’s as disgusting as anything West has said in the past. The album may be released this week, or may not.
Rafman obviously has his own issues and we can’t judge them. The museum showings, however, were never rescheduled. As for Rafman taking on a job with Kanye West, that’s another story. According to his bio, Rafman was educated in Jewish schools. It’s not possible that he’s missed all the controversies surrounding West and his antisemitism.
As for West hiring an artist with serious accusations of sexual misconduct, well, why not? West is currently suffering criticism on social for featuring photos of his presumed wife, Bianca Censori, nearly naked.
Vanity Fair bases its whole year on the Oscar party. But their coverage today of Oscar nominations is limited by the one day Conde Nast strike by journalists. The union is protesting the huge layoffs at the company.
So what to do? VF put up a list of nominees without a byline. None of their film people will be writing about the Oscars all day on their website.
Vogue is in the same boat. Their list was put up by the British Vogue movies editor since no US staffer could do it.
The union’s Twitter account wrote:
“Over 400 of our members have walked off the job over @CondeNast’s unlawful handling of layoff negotiations and bad-faith bargaining. Instead of covering the #Oscars2024 nominations, we’ll be out at the picket line.”
Starting at midnight EST for 24 hours, DON’T CROSS OUR CLICK-IT LINE, that means no clicks, likes, reshares on:
There are two rounds of announcements this morning. The first group comes at 8;30am and includes Best Supporting Actress and Actor, and Original and Adapted Screenplay. The second round, with Best Picture, is set for 8:41am. Keep refreshing…
Snubs:
Greta Gerwig didn’t get Best Director for “Barbie.” Did the movie direct itself? Margot Robbie, the heart of the movie, wasn’t nominated for Best Actress! The woman who made it was a shock: Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall.” Huh?
“The Color Purple” was iced out except for Danielle Brooks. Fantasia was also ignored– a mistake!
Leonardo DiCaprio was ignored for one of his best performances in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“May December” failed to get acting announcements or director. Charles Melton, who was great in the film and received other nods, was iced out.
Big shock: Lenny Kravitz’s song for “Rustin” wasn’t nominated. It was on every list.
Of course, the Michael J. Fox doc “Still” wasn’t nominated because it was sideswiped by the Emmys.
And where is Jon Batiste’s documentary, “American Symphony”? What????
“Air,” my guilty pleasure, got nothing. “Saltburn,” with all of its kookiness, is out completely.
Good news: Annette Bening nominated for “Nyad” — spectacular performance. There’s also the power of popularity in the Academy. Beloved cinematographer Ed Lachman is in for “El Conde.” Diane Warren got her 15th nomination, for “The Flame Inside.”
Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Bradley Cooper in “Maestro”
Colman Domingo in “Rustin”
Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers”
Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer”
Jeffrey Wright in “American Fiction”
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Sterling K. Brown in “American Fiction”
Robert De Niro in “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Robert Downey Jr. in “Oppenheimer”
Ryan Gosling in “Barbie”
Mark Ruffalo in “Poor Things”
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Annette Bening in “Nyad”
Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Sandra Hüller in “Anatomy of a Fall”
Carey Mulligan in “Maestro”
Emma Stone in “Poor Things”
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Emily Blunt in “Oppenheimer”
Danielle Brooks in “The Color Purple”
America Ferrera in “Barbie”
Jodie Foster in “Nyad”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers”
Best animated feature film of the year
“The Boy and the Heron” Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
“Elemental” Peter Sohn and Denise Ream
“Nimona” Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
I have to laugh when I read some of these interviews with celebrities.
“Modern Family” star has given one to El Pais, which has been picked up widely on the interwebs. Asked about her just concluded marriage to “Magic Mike” actor Joe Mangiello, Vergara says:
“My marriage broke up because my husband was younger; he wanted to have kids and I didn’t want to be an old mom. I feel it’s not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore. I had a son at 19, who is now 32, and I’m ready to be a grandmother, not a mother. So, if love comes along, he has to come with [his own] children. I’m almost in menopause; it’s the natural way of things. When my son becomes a dad, let him bring the baby to me for a while and then I’ll give it back to him and go on with my life; that’s what I have to do.”
The interviewer moves on without remarking that fertility seems to be a thread in Vergara’s life. For years she battled her former boyfriend, Nick Loeb, in court after court over embryos they had frozen for the future. The story went on in every gossip column, especially Page Six, almost on a daily basis.
Indeed, the two stories overlapped. Vergara and Mangiello got married a year and a half after she broke up with Loeb. She was then 45 which isn’t so old anymore. The legal battle with Loeb went on until March 2021 when a judge finally ruled in Vergara’s favor. Loeb could not use the frozen embryos without Vergara’s permission. As recently as last year, Loeb was still suing the outfit that performed the fertilization.
You can read all about the case here. Of course, Loeb was nuts to want babies created from a woman who dumped him. But now that Vergara has left Mangiello over him wanting to have children of his own, the question arises: Why do all these men want to have children with Sofia Vergara? Especially since it’s clear she closed that door a long time ago (her adult son is 32, as she says).
A better question is: why has every outlet just repeated the latest stuff from El Pais without mentioning that the frozen embryo story went on for seven years? Amnesia? Why didn’t the interviewer ask Vergara about that whole mess? And what happened to the embryos? (We assume they were destroyed.)
Also, whatever happened to Onion Crunch, the condiment Loeb tried but failed to turn into America’s next garnish? Its website remains sort of frozen in time, the product long expired. There must be a warehouse of it somewhere just waiting for a grilled burger.
ABC’s “General Hospital” is changing head writers.
Patrick Mulcahey and Elizabeth Korte are taking over from Chris Van Etten and Dan O’Connor. New scripts will begin in March.
This year has been tough for “General Hospital.” They lost veteran actors Jackie Zeman and Sonya Eddy. The Writers Guild strike meant scabs had to steer the ship for four months, often running it aground.
“General Hospital” averages 2 million viewers a day, down considerably from the pre pandemic period. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t. Head writers burn themselves out on these shows after turning out more than 250 episodes a year. They often lose the thread of what’s going on, and that’s certainly what happened here.
It may not be a coincidence that “General Hospital” is welcoming back long time actor Steve Burton next month. Burton was fired by ABC and Disney when he refused to be vaccinated during COVID. But there’s no mandate now, and Burton is returning for another round.
Norman Jewison was one of the greats. A lovely guy, a gentleman, and an incredibly talented director. He died today at age 97.
Jewison, who was Canadian, directed a slew of hit movies including “Moonstruck,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Hurricane,” and two with Jane Fonda: “Rollerball” and “Agnes of God.”
He was a director’s director, his name was on every list for decades. “Can we get Norman Jewison?” was something heard in a lot of meetings in Hollywood.
“Moonstruck” was probably his high water mark, except that both “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “In the Heat of the Night” are also considered classics. He also made a cult hit with “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”
This evening Lee Grant — who returned to Hollywood after more than a decade lost to the blacklist in “In the Heat of the Night” — Tweeted: “Norman Jewison is a giant and I am in his debt. He gave me back a career at the end of the blacklist. I doubt there has been a more versatile director before or since. A huge hearted man and truly unique talent. Nothing I say here can do him justice. But I can say ‘Thank You'”
What a life! What a career! Condolences to his family.