Tuesday evening, drinking iced tea
More Oscar coverage, with particular regard to the hijinx of Dame Helen:
Sunday night: "Helen Mirren doesn't expect to be getting a congratulatory call from England's Queen Elizabeth II, the woman she portrayed in her Oscar-winning role in The Queen. 'Not ever,' she said backstage at Sunday's Oscar show.... 'There are many countries in the world where one would not be allowed to make this film. It's generous of the queen and the royal family to sit back and not interfere. I do believe she is a noble person in the best sense of the word.' "
Tuesday morning (link from bookworm): The Queen's people are inviting Mirren to tea, or at least "looking at a number of options." That should be interesting.
And then, from akathorne: Mirren reveals on Oprah that she went braless to the Oscars. “You look at the inside of this dress. It’s as beautiful as the outside. It’s fantastic. It was all made for me, so I didn’t have to have any underwear. [grabbing chest ] It held me like two angel’s hands.” With, uh, video.
Speaking of which, our Best Dressed poll: The top four, as decided by y'all, were 1) Cate Blanchett (28.0%), 2) Helen Mirren (19.9%), 3) Kate Winslet (14.6%) and 4) Reese Witherspoon (13.1%). Meanwhile, I didn't even notice Jennifer Hudson's third dress until this evening, and would have put it on the poll instead of the red dress in a heartbeat.
Infernal Affairs Filmmakers Divided on The Departed.
Oscar FeudWatch: Sound Mixer Smackdown! "A reporter asks the Sound Mixing winners for Dreamgirls about Kevin O'Connell, one of the Sound Mixing losers for Apocalypto--and one of Oscars all-time losers, now having been vanquished 19 times. 'I just wonder what Kevin's trying to do out there by trying to get an award by using sympathy,' an absolutely straight-faced Oscar-holding Michael Minkler says. 'And Kevin's an okay mixer, but enough's enough about Kevin.... I think he should just take up another line of work." Jury's out on whether this was tongue-in-cheek or not, but... the guy goes on a little bit too long, you know?
Linkspam proper:
lauramcvey, from whom I heard it first: "Kenneth Eng is at it again: he published a piece on why he hates African-Americans. During Black History Month. Oooh, boy. For those of you who aren't familiar with the guy, he's widely known on the Net for spamming messageboards with praise for his (godawful) sci-fi novels. He also runs a website, from which he speechifies about why he is God. No, really. He lists himself as 'Kenneth Eng, God' on his Amazon page."
jasminelily: "To piggyback on the above, here's the article in the SF Chronicle about that."
From CNN: Column on 'Why I Hate Blacks' condemned.
Study: Vanity on the rise among college students. " 'We need to stop endlessly repeating "You're special" and having children repeat that back,' said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. 'Kids are self-centered enough already.' " THANK YOU. I swear, my class (high school class of 1997) was one of the last classes before the You're a Winner Just for Showing Up! ethos really set in at schools. Granted, we were always given little "thanks for participating" trophies in the (non-school) softball league, but I do believe actual merit-based trophies were also given out. And I can understand wanting to shore up kids' self-esteem to a certain level--as in the example above, to encourage girls to be athletic. But the participation trophies were always comfortably dinky, and they didn't take the place of merit-based awards. By the time my sister was in grade school, we were at the point where some schools were phasing out merit-based awards because kids' feelings might be hurt. You know what? Fuck you. Sorry, but this really burns my toast, because in a world where no one values merit, neither is anyone given any incentive to surpass the status quo. I mean, why bother? Everyone's got the God-given right to receive the same dinky trophy, no more and no less, so why put forth any extra effort? Besides, you shouldn't have to--the awards should just come to you, because you're special. And I'm telling you, I instantly realized what fruit this policy had borne when I started watching American Idol in its first season and saw all those talentless, self-entitled, back-talking kids in the cattle-call auditions--kids who had just emerged from that wonderful cocoon of encouraged mediocrity. GAH.
(Where's my walker? Is it time for Jello yet?)
thatlizgirl: "Few people know this, but yesterday marked the beginning of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW)." She mentioned this in the context of Jennifer Hudson being completely fabulous and a great role model, by the way.
mercat: "Hey, I thought you might be interested in this since you put the hunger site/breast cancer site/literacy site links at the bottom of each post: it's to raise donations of pads and tampons and whatnot for shelters and other situations where people who can't afford it can get most everything else but that. At least that's the gist of it!"
Occupying Entire Wing Of Promises Assures Britney Spears A Baldwin-Free Recovery Experience.
Suspected steroid ring to stars busted.
JJ Abrams officially directing Star Trek reboot for Christmas Day 2008 release. Speaking of which, EW did post an uncanny Sinise/McCoy comparison.
New Umbridge, Harry, Weasley Twins Photo from OotP. The twins lost all their floppy hair! What the hell! Meanwhile, 'Harry Potter' makes racy stage debut; Potter Fans Mob "Equus" Actors at Stage Door; Daniel Radcliffe fans force Richard Griffiths out of window. ("Radcliffe looks at Equus as a way of bidding his best-known character, Harry Potter, farewell: 'With this, they can say I'm good or terrible, but the one thing they can't say is I haven't challenged myself.... That iconic scene is the physical and emotional climax of the play. So if I do that with pants on, it would be crap.' ")
SEGA Reveals Golden Compass Game Details.
'Chad Vader,' Brother of Darth, Becomes YouTube Smash.
Nicolas Cage may do remake of The Fly. NO.
Dueling Darwin biopics? I agree, though--whoever casts Skandar Keynes in some capacity wins.
shusu has an Amazing Grace poll! Go forth and help us figure out if I'm crazy the advertising really was skewed.
Sunday night: "Helen Mirren doesn't expect to be getting a congratulatory call from England's Queen Elizabeth II, the woman she portrayed in her Oscar-winning role in The Queen. 'Not ever,' she said backstage at Sunday's Oscar show.... 'There are many countries in the world where one would not be allowed to make this film. It's generous of the queen and the royal family to sit back and not interfere. I do believe she is a noble person in the best sense of the word.' "
Tuesday morning (link from bookworm): The Queen's people are inviting Mirren to tea, or at least "looking at a number of options." That should be interesting.
And then, from akathorne: Mirren reveals on Oprah that she went braless to the Oscars. “You look at the inside of this dress. It’s as beautiful as the outside. It’s fantastic. It was all made for me, so I didn’t have to have any underwear. [grabbing chest ] It held me like two angel’s hands.” With, uh, video.
Speaking of which, our Best Dressed poll: The top four, as decided by y'all, were 1) Cate Blanchett (28.0%), 2) Helen Mirren (19.9%), 3) Kate Winslet (14.6%) and 4) Reese Witherspoon (13.1%). Meanwhile, I didn't even notice Jennifer Hudson's third dress until this evening, and would have put it on the poll instead of the red dress in a heartbeat.
Infernal Affairs Filmmakers Divided on The Departed.
Oscar FeudWatch: Sound Mixer Smackdown! "A reporter asks the Sound Mixing winners for Dreamgirls about Kevin O'Connell, one of the Sound Mixing losers for Apocalypto--and one of Oscars all-time losers, now having been vanquished 19 times. 'I just wonder what Kevin's trying to do out there by trying to get an award by using sympathy,' an absolutely straight-faced Oscar-holding Michael Minkler says. 'And Kevin's an okay mixer, but enough's enough about Kevin.... I think he should just take up another line of work." Jury's out on whether this was tongue-in-cheek or not, but... the guy goes on a little bit too long, you know?
Linkspam proper:
lauramcvey, from whom I heard it first: "Kenneth Eng is at it again: he published a piece on why he hates African-Americans. During Black History Month. Oooh, boy. For those of you who aren't familiar with the guy, he's widely known on the Net for spamming messageboards with praise for his (godawful) sci-fi novels. He also runs a website, from which he speechifies about why he is God. No, really. He lists himself as 'Kenneth Eng, God' on his Amazon page."
jasminelily: "To piggyback on the above, here's the article in the SF Chronicle about that."
From CNN: Column on 'Why I Hate Blacks' condemned.
Study: Vanity on the rise among college students. " 'We need to stop endlessly repeating "You're special" and having children repeat that back,' said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. 'Kids are self-centered enough already.' " THANK YOU. I swear, my class (high school class of 1997) was one of the last classes before the You're a Winner Just for Showing Up! ethos really set in at schools. Granted, we were always given little "thanks for participating" trophies in the (non-school) softball league, but I do believe actual merit-based trophies were also given out. And I can understand wanting to shore up kids' self-esteem to a certain level--as in the example above, to encourage girls to be athletic. But the participation trophies were always comfortably dinky, and they didn't take the place of merit-based awards. By the time my sister was in grade school, we were at the point where some schools were phasing out merit-based awards because kids' feelings might be hurt. You know what? Fuck you. Sorry, but this really burns my toast, because in a world where no one values merit, neither is anyone given any incentive to surpass the status quo. I mean, why bother? Everyone's got the God-given right to receive the same dinky trophy, no more and no less, so why put forth any extra effort? Besides, you shouldn't have to--the awards should just come to you, because you're special. And I'm telling you, I instantly realized what fruit this policy had borne when I started watching American Idol in its first season and saw all those talentless, self-entitled, back-talking kids in the cattle-call auditions--kids who had just emerged from that wonderful cocoon of encouraged mediocrity. GAH.
(Where's my walker? Is it time for Jello yet?)
thatlizgirl: "Few people know this, but yesterday marked the beginning of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW)." She mentioned this in the context of Jennifer Hudson being completely fabulous and a great role model, by the way.
mercat: "Hey, I thought you might be interested in this since you put the hunger site/breast cancer site/literacy site links at the bottom of each post: it's to raise donations of pads and tampons and whatnot for shelters and other situations where people who can't afford it can get most everything else but that. At least that's the gist of it!"
Occupying Entire Wing Of Promises Assures Britney Spears A Baldwin-Free Recovery Experience.
Suspected steroid ring to stars busted.
JJ Abrams officially directing Star Trek reboot for Christmas Day 2008 release. Speaking of which, EW did post an uncanny Sinise/McCoy comparison.
New Umbridge, Harry, Weasley Twins Photo from OotP. The twins lost all their floppy hair! What the hell! Meanwhile, 'Harry Potter' makes racy stage debut; Potter Fans Mob "Equus" Actors at Stage Door; Daniel Radcliffe fans force Richard Griffiths out of window. ("Radcliffe looks at Equus as a way of bidding his best-known character, Harry Potter, farewell: 'With this, they can say I'm good or terrible, but the one thing they can't say is I haven't challenged myself.... That iconic scene is the physical and emotional climax of the play. So if I do that with pants on, it would be crap.' ")
SEGA Reveals Golden Compass Game Details.
'Chad Vader,' Brother of Darth, Becomes YouTube Smash.
Nicolas Cage may do remake of The Fly. NO.
Dueling Darwin biopics? I agree, though--whoever casts Skandar Keynes in some capacity wins.
shusu has an Amazing Grace poll! Go forth and help us figure out if I'm crazy the advertising really was skewed.