Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Anne Again, & The 2011 Academy Awards


Ms Anne


The Hosts




Kirk


Beautiful


WTF?!


Ooopps! This is her next movie.


I was talking to my lovely sister over the weekend, just a few hours before the 83rd annual Academy Award presentation was to begin right here in Los Angeles, in Hollywood in fact, at the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave. It was around three in the afternoon, and we both planned on watching the ceremony. We didn't know why. Neither of us had been involved in the production of any of the nominated films. Neither of us had acted in any capacity in "The King's Speech" or "Inception" (although my lovely ex-case manager Erin and I had been chased off of the set of "Inception," while they were filming here downtown. We have pictures to prove it). We didn't write "The Social Network," or "The Fighter," or even "Toy Story 3," for that matter. As a matter of fact my sister Cheryl and I don't have any thing to do at all with the entertainment business whatsoever. It is true that I used to deliver booze to various stars inside the Universal City lot, along with my father of course, who owned the liquor store where the booze came from, but that was a very long time ago, more time than I'd like to admit. And I'm not exactly sure if delivering alcohol to Grandpa Munster counts exactly as "being in the business." So why were Cheryl and I looking forward to watching this three hour plus, self congratulatory, self aggrandizing, unapologetic monument to narcissistic, economic self promotion?
Nothing better to do I guess.
But that's not the true story at all. I have a long history of watching the Academy Awards. I don't know why (I remember clearly when Marlon Brando refused the Best Actor Award for the "Godfather" due to his objection to the depiction of American Indians by Hollywood and television, sending instead American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who appeared in full Apache dress. And before that I'll always remember (it's not easy to remember as I was on acid at the time) the look on young (26 year old) Goldie Hawn's face when she opened the envelope for the Best Actor Award in 1971. First she sucked in her breath, shocked when she read who the winner was, then recovered her poise, smiled, and blurted out, "George C. Scott, for 'Patton.'" Scott had not attended the ceremony, had in fact stated he would refuse the award if it were presented to him feeling the politics surrounding such awards were "demeaning" and described the Oscar ceremony as "a two-hour meat parade." Little did he know it would evolve into a three and a half hour meat parade). I've seen them almost every year that I can think of (except when I served overseas in the navy). I guess it is due to the fact that I love movies so much, and know quite a bit about them. I have no idea why my sister watches the awards, although I know she enjoys films a great deal. Currently she enjoys films with Johnny Depp and Ryan Reynolds in them. But neither actor was to be found at the 83 annual Academy Award Show.
I made a point of watching every film that had been nominated for the Best Picture category before the awards, except one, "The Kids Are Alright." Not that I have any thing against lesbians. That's hardly the case. Some of my best friends are lesbians. Hell, if I were a girl I'd be a lesbian myself! It was just that no one sent me a DVD screener for the movie, and I could not muster the energy to rent it, so it was essentially inaccessible to me. I watched many other films that were released in 2010 that were not nominated for Best Picture to compensate (like "Skyline," where the aliens come to suck out our brains. I hope they make better use of them than we do).
So I believed myself to be thoroughly prepared for the evening. I had put in the work, and was ready to see who the winners would be (although there were not any big surprises throughout the night).
There was another reason I was happy to watch the awards. I told my sister.
"I'm secretly in love with Anne Hathaway," I told her. "Please don't tell anybody."
"You're in love with all of them," she inartfully replied.
It seems to be true, about Anne that is. Ms Hathaway is one of the very few ladies who have made repeat appearances on this very website, Joyce's Take. She first appeared on the second post... right after the first! Back in February of 2008. Here it is right here:
http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2009/02/2008-academy-awards.html
See! I told you. The occasion was the Academy Awards again. It's so funny how they keep popping up! She had been involved briefly with Hugh Jackman's opening bit, and I had commented on what a great job she did. She was wonderful, and I'm not saying that just because I was secretly in love with her at the time (yes, even back then).
She came back to Joyce's Take quite unexpectedly last November, the 12th to be precise, on one of the many birthday tributes that makes their way onto the site every now and then. Here is Anne's:
http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/11/happy-birthday-anne-hathaway.html
Anyway, she was so good that they invited her back to actually host the awards last Sunday night with the wonderful actor James Franco. You may have seen him in films like "Spiderman," "Pineapple Express," and "Milk." By golly, he was even nominated this year for Best Actor himself for his performance in "127 Hours." It amazes me that he didn't win! I mean anybody who cuts their own arm off in service to their craft should certainly deserve that recognition at least!
But it was not to be. Colin Firth won for "The King's Speech" (damn foreigner).
Here is a promo that James and Anne worked very hard on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE0asLABRIo
And here's the opening of the awards itself, which I enjoyed very much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XYWloNDWDU
Anyway, the awards over now, the show itself has met with a great deal of negative reviews. Some saying it was too long (they always say that), some say it was the most boring in history, some that James seemed disinterested, distracted, or "high," on some kind of drug that makes one appear disinterested and distracted. They say of Anne, she was too perky, or too confident that everything was going well and playing off that. Many people got on this rolling bandwagon of heaping verbal and written abuse of the show and the guest hosts, it seemed to be the "in" thing to do.
You know what I say to all of that negativity. I say bullshit! That's what I say. I think both of the hosts were wonderful, especially Anne... because I'm secretly in love with her (although she really is a little too old for me).
Even 94 year old veteran actor and icon, the legendary Kirk Douglas thought Anne was wonderful (the lecherous bastard):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBLlJBgZkDs
So I don't care what anybody says. If there was anything off about Sunday's presentation it had to due with the writing, a matter that was beyond the control of James and Anne, and I would have either or both of them back anytime, especially Anne.
Because I'm secretly in love with her.
I think Kirk is too.
Please don't tell anyone.

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