Results tagged “motionpicture”

• Perhaps the big surprise (besides Juno getting nominated for Best Director and Best Picture) was Ruby Dee for her work in American Gangster (its only other nomination was for art direction)

THEATER: Wolf Lane Productions presents Victims of the Zeitgeist (The Tragedy of Martin Luther King, Jr.), written & directed by Ellwoodson Williams. The production "offers an exciting and telling insight into just who Martin Luther King, Jr., was as leader and simply as a sensitive and intelligent human being who loved life and who had a sense of humor, a deep understanding of the human condition - its strengths and weaknesses - and a profound belief in justice."

Due to the Writer's Guild of America strike, Hollywood's party, the Golden Globes Awards were transformed from a boozy, fun dinner party to a press conference where presenters from entertainment programs like Extra! and E! News got to announce the winners. Yes, it was as painful as it sounded (Giuliana Rancic, it's not about you); many said they couldn't believe they were announcing the winners but said they would prefer it with the stars. Inside Edition's Jim Moret struck a classy note when he acknowledged the Hollywood Foreign Association (the organization that doles out the Golden Globes) President Jorge Camara.

After Letterman announced his show's comeback with new episodes, writers' strike or no writers' strike, the leaders of late night all followed suit.

Early this morning Hayden Panettiere and other Hollywood elite looked ready to hit the town for a night out even though it was 5:30am. They were announcing this year's Golden Globe nominees, often a good sign for who will be nominated for that other gold statue. All in all New York-based shows and movies fared well as the envelopes were opened sheets of paper were read from. 30 Rock (Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical...

Wait a minute, didn't Brian Williams host Saturday NIght Live just two weeks ago, the one where Barack Obama appeared in the opening? Yes, but with the Writers Guild strike still on, Saturday Night Live decided to revisit the recent past, versus dig into old "Best of" clip shows. The unfortunate thing is that Page Six reports 90% of the SNL production staff was fired "until further notice" because of the strike. Other TV shows'...

The Writers Guild strike continued into its second day today; in L.A. Jay Leno delivered donuts to strikers on his motorcycle, while here in New York Seth Meyers joined the picket line and the giant rat outside Silvercup Studios in Long Island City (30 Rock and Gossip Girl are among the productions filmed there). The Saturday Night Live star and head writer had this to say:TV is completely changing, the way people are watching...

Members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike today after talks between the WGA and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers collapsed last night. WGA East members are striking outside of NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Plaza on 49th Street today - 30 Rock's Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers, and the Daily Show's John Oliver were on the line, as were many other writers for other productions - and other...

More Rescue Me for Next Season

Earlier this year bootleg DVDs became even more illegal in New York, and now there's a new way "the man" is cracking down on the bootleggers: with puppies! Metro reports that:

“Dogs are used to sniff out bodies, bombs and drugs,” said Malcolm, who’s now the chief of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America. “We just needed to see if they could be trained to smell the unique chemicals in DVDs. Lo and behold, they can.”

Covering Coverage

Remember that Seinfeld episode where Jerry bootlegs a movie and does such a great job he becomes a legend amongst the bootleggers? Well now he would have a lot more to worry about had he been caught. Secretly videotaping movies in a New York City theater may become a misdemeanor under a bill approved by the City Council yesterday. Prior to this bill, it was only a $250 fine, a slap on the wrist compared to the new fine of $5,000 and possible jail time (up to six months).

Yes, yes, last night was the Golden Globes. And boy, that Warren Beatty NEVER SHUTS UP.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association voting pool for the Golden Globes only consists of 83 members, but every year their mainstream tastes become one of the potential early prognosticators for the Emmys and the Oscars. Over in Beverly Hills today, the stylists are putting the finishing touches on the stars' couture, that long red carpet is being laid and some assistant is double checking the seals on the envelopes. Here in New York of course, we get to play the more enviable armchair critic job hashing out who might be taking home this year's statues after tonight's telecast [8 - 11 pm on NBC].

In October, Mayor Bloomberg announced legislation to penalize movie piracy. NYC, besides being a capitol of finance, media, and fashion, among other things, is also the capitol of movie piracy, with 43% of all pirated DVDs coming from the Big Apple.

It's the itch we can't scratch - the Academy Awards. We make sure we see the announcements at 8:30AM and then rush to work, thinking about the nominations while on the train. This morning, Academy President Sid Ganis and Mira Sorvino (who isn't doing anything else, anyway) announced the nominations. As expected, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, and Capote earned many nominations, and Crash made a surprising showing with Best Picture, Best Director and even a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Matt Dillon. Other surprises/interesting things:

- Nicolette Sheridan does not look over-Botoxed with fish lips!

It's official: Jon Stewart will host this year's Oscars telecast. Which means the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to go for crowd-pleasing ('specially in liberal Hollywood) political commentary, versus another year of cruel but insightful wisecracks from Chris Rock. Hmm, Gothamist likes Jon Stewart, though we downgraded him after the frat-party audience atmosphere of the Daily Show started to detract from the show, but he is better than Whoopi Goldberg again. Actually, we don't care as long as Bruce Vilanch is kept away from the writers' room and Steven Colbert is involved in the telecast - can you picture it, a "Colbert Report" on the evils of Hollywood?

We spotted this sign on Wooster near Canal Street, close to where all the vendors are selling bootleg Prada bags and illicit DVDs. The sign seems a little low-production value for the Motion Picture Association of America-- so we're curious who is behind it. Any ideas?

The reaction camera is off its game, as it catches celebrities at the oddest moments. You see Maria Shriver, Governator is looking down at the floor, probably for that yummy piece of shrimp that fell.

This week The Ethicist takes a question from a man posted in Vietnam who buys bootlegged copies of DVDs because "legitimate copies" are mostly unavailable in his area. Under such circumstances, is it ethical to buy pirated movies? If the man pays a monthly fee to a video rental service such as Netflix in order to make sure the studios get a little money, is he in the clear?

Media boo-boos:

Oscar Commentary
Oscar is celebrating its 75th anniversary, I'm celebrating my 25th anniversary of watching Oscar.

If the Oscars do go on tonight, I'll be glad because then everyone can shut up about it. It may seem strange for me to say this, given my love for movies and the Oscars and how I generally live for movies and love the day the Oscar nominations come out...but there's no Best Picture film I'm really behind this year...the only category I'm interested in Original Screenplay, and it's highly doubtful Almodovar or the Cuaron brothers will win. And after the litany of prizes and awards shows so far, I could care less about the acting categories and wondering if this is Harvey Weinstein's year. Just shut up already.

Tania and I had been discussing Dick Clark earlier today and I felt he was a consummate professional, infinitely smarter and classier than Nancy O'Dell and Lisa Ling during the pre-show...Virginia Heffernan agrees