11/5: "Files" Sharing

• SHOULDA BEEN A CONTENDA? My friend Dave Karger over at Entertainment Weekly has been all over the Oscar race this week. In the 11/7 print edition, Dave shared his early projections of the major categories (which provoked video-retorts one and two from my LAT colleagues Pete Hammond and Tom O'Neil), and on his new blog, Oscar Watch, he highlighted three actors in big-studio movies — Ari Gaynor ("Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist"), Michael Kelly ("Changeling"), and Greg Kinnear ("Flash of Genius") — who "probably won't be getting full big-studio pushes this year ... but if you ask me, they should."

• I feel indifferent about Gaynor and Kelly, but I do feel for Kinnear, who is regularly solid but overlooked; was also good this year in "Baby Mama" and "Ghost Town"; and deserves a nominal campaign, at the very least, for his committed work in "Flash."

• I'M READY FOR MY CLOSEUP, MR. SHEEHAN  LAT contributor Paul Sheehan has put together a nice gallery featuring photos and write-ups of 17 potential best actress nominees. It includes general-consensus choices like Cate Blanchett ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), Meryl Streep ("Doubt"), Kate Winslet ("Revolutionary Road") but also the overlooked and under-appreciated like Penelope Cruz ("Elegy"), Melissa Leo ("Frozen River") and Michelle Williams ("Wendy and Lucy"). Not sure about Sarah Jessica Parker ("Sex and the City"), though...

• "THE READER" LIVES! David Poland of MovieCityNews spreads the news that the Weinstein Co. —which has recently pushed several releases from 2008 to 2009 and had a mass defection of employees in anticipation of money problems — is apparently still going full steam ahead with its prestige production of the year, "The Reader," having invited L.A.-based members of the press to a screening on Monday 11/24. The film marks the final collaboration between the recently deceased producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack; was adapted from an extraordinary Bernard Schlink book by the great David Hare; has been at the center of a brouhaha among producer Harvey Weinstein, producer Scott Rudin and director Stephen Daldry; and stars Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet ... actually, if you accept the studio's recent designation of both as supporting actors, then by default it really stars 18-year-old German actor David Kross, right?

• SHEEN SHINES Anne Thompson of Variety has gone to bat for Michael Sheen, one of the two stars of the productions of "Frost/Nixon" on Broadway and now the big screen, who is in danger of seeing another of his excellent performances snubbed in favor of a costar's flashier work.

• Sheen's last big-screen role of note was as Tony Blair in "The Queen" (2006), which won rave reviews, a best picture nomination and a best actress Oscar for Helen Mirren but zilch for Sheen. He soon after headed to Broadway with "Frost/Nixon," which received critical raves, a Tony nomination for best play and a Tony for best actor for costar Frank Langella but, again, not so much as a nomination for Sheen. Will history repeat itself at the Oscars? At the moment, it's looking that way, in no small part because Universal and/or Sheen have resolved to campaign for him in lead (opposite Langella's showier performance) rather than supporting (where he'd be a lock for a nod), which is never gonna pan out.

• As I recently noted, the last time one movie produced two best actor nominees was "Amadeus" (1984, Abraham/Hulce) 24 years ago. Since then? Not "Wall Street" (1987, Douglas/Sheen), "Rain Man" (1988, Hoffman/Cruise), "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994, Freeman/Robbins), "Pulp Fiction" (1994, Travolta/Jackson), "Training Day" (2001, Washington/Hawke), "The Departed" (2006, DiCaprio/Damon), "The Last King of Scotland" (2006, Whitaker/McAvoy) ... nothing. One of the two male leads in those films either went supporting or got shut out. I'm not saying it's an unbreakable streak, but would you really want to bet on Michael Sheen, in such a competitive year, being the guy to break it? I'll second my LAT colleague Tom O'Neil's open letter to Sheen: Go supporting, or prepare to go home!

• "THIRTEEN" GOING ON ... OVER! OR NOT ... I'm rather relieved to read the news that 2003 Golden Globe nominee Evan Rachel Wood ("Thirteen") has ended her relationship with musician and self-proclaimed Satanist Marilyn Manson. Wood, 21, and Manson, 39, began dating two years ago after meeting on the set of his directorial debut, "Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll," which is reportedly still in production.

• I don't know what Wood was thinking — maybe it was an "Edward Scissorhands" or "Fur" sort of attraction that led her to date the weirdo and appear in one of his sick music videos — but I do know that the two-year relationship did not help her career. Last year, I felt for little Revolution studios (now out of business), which fought so hard to get awards attention for cult-favorite "Across the Universe" but really wasn't helped by the bizarre situation with Wood. Other than "Universe," Wood's career since 2003 has featured dud after dud — "Running With Scissors" (2006), "King of California" (2007), "The Life Before Her Eyes" (2007) etc.

• In the upcoming "The Wrestler," though, she is back in good form and could even give costar Marisa Tomei a run for her money for a spot in the supporting actress category, so here's wishing her well.

• KATE VS. KATE? Perennial best actress contender Kate Winslet is profiled by Krista Smith of Vanity Fair and interviewed by Anthony Breznican of USA Today about her dual roles this year in "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader." As has been widely reported, Kate is being pushed in lead for the former and in supporting for the latter, but there are now a growing number of people who are pondering the possibility of a potential doomsday scenario I first considered last month: namely, that academy members will — to borrow a Palin-esque phrase — "go rogue" and vote for both performances in lead, thereby splitting her vote and denying her a nomination for either! Let's hope it doesn't come to that for Kate the Great, who in my estimation is the best actress of her generation without an Oscar to her name.

• MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO "MILK" ATTENTION Kris Tapley at InContention raises an interesting point that came up in several discussions I had last week — that the folks behind "Milk," the awards-hopeful biopic featuring an Oscar-worthy performance by Sean Penn as gay-rights activist Harvey Milk, really missed the boat by failing to release their film prior to Tuesday's election. There is some reason to believe that, if they had, the film and its coverage in the media coverage might — might — have swung the passage of California's Proposition 8 the other way.

• GUESS WHO'S COMING TO THE WHITE HOUSE? Unless you've been in a cocoon for the last 24 hours or so, chances are you've already heard the news: Wednesday, Barack Obama became the first black man to be elected president of the United States. What you may not have picked up on, though, was just how frequently media coverage before, during and after the election featured references to pop culture, generally, and movies, specifically.

• Frank Rich of the New York Times compared Obama to the character played by Sidney Poitier in the classic social-conscience film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967); the Vancouver Sun noted that Richard Pryor portrayed the first black president on "The Richard Pryor Show" in the 1970s; Ty Burr of the Boston Globe reminded us that James Earl Jones portrayed another early fictional black president in "The Man" (1972); Karl Rove stepped into dangerous territory when he awkwardly argued that America has "had an African American first family for many years," citing Bill Cosby on "The Cosby Show" (1984-1992); and D.L. Hughley of CNN's "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News" joked that however bad a situation Obama might be inheriting, it is not nearly as dire as the one that Morgan Freeman faced as president in "Deep Impact" (1998). Change, it seems, is a-comin'!

• IF ONLY I COULD DO SO WELL WITH THE OSCARS! I devote a lot of time and energy to following and studying not only the Oscar race, but also all sorts of other competitions (in sports, politics etc.), as well. For this reason, I'm rather proud of the fact that in 2006 I correctly forecasted the winners of all 13 senatorial races,and even prouder that on Tuesday night I correctly forecasted the presidential winner in all 48 states in which a winner has been called thus far. Here's hoping that Obama ends up winning Missouri and North Carolina, if only to make that a nice, round 50!

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Photo: Greg Kinnear in "Flash of Genius." Credit: Universal Pictures

Comments

[Zarina]

It'll be hilarious and great if the kid from The Reader gets through and scores a nom (somewhere). But I bet he'll be overlooked even though much seems to depend on his performance in The Reader. He seems to be the central character there.

[Blake]

Please Scott,
You must be the first "pundit" to blame the failure of Across the Universe to make money on Evan Rachel Wood's relationship with Mariyln Manson. Most know that the film cost too much and that Sony declined to promote it after the bitter fights between Joe Roth and Julie Taymor.
It seems to me, most people who liked the movie loved Evan's performance.

As far as I know, the Manson film has never begun filming.