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You’re no dummy: You know that The Artist is likely to take home some of the major awards at this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. But how are you supposed to fill out your Oscar pool when it comes to more obscure categories like Best Sound Editing and Best Documentary Short? And when sure shots like The Artist and Octavia Spencer win, what can you say at your Oscar party to sound smart about it? Vulture’s got you covered on both fronts: Here’s who we expect to win in every category, and what to say when they do.
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Take Our Oscar Personality Quiz
Time to be honest: Have you ever practiced giving an Oscar speech with a shampoo bottle? And if you have, would you, like Kate Winslet, actually admit to it upon winning the real award? Or would you bound up on the stage like Cuba Gooding Jr. and just start screaming people's names as the music played? We understand this is all largely daydreaming, but hey, it's Oscar Week, and if there is ever a time to wonder how you would comport yourself when handed a golden statue in front of a hundred million people, that time is now! So Vulture dreamed up our "And the Winner Is…" Oscars quiz for our Facebook fans, with a bonus giveaway. Just go to Vulture's Facebook page, Like us, and take our Oscars Personality Quiz to find out which memorable past winner you most resemble. Then, click on the sweepstakes entry form right below the quiz for your shot at one year of Netflix Streaming membership. The sweepstakes runs until February 25, so don't wait! Full contest rules are available here. Good luck!
Polone: The False Circular Logic Behind Hollywood’s Resistance to Black Entertainment
By Gavin Polone
According to a 2011 BET study, on average, African-Americans buy movie tickets 13.4 times a year versus 11 times for a general market that includes Caucasians and Hispanics. African-Americans watch 40 percent more television than the general market. The percentage of people in the country who are African-American is 12.6 percent. The percentage of people in the entertainment industry making movies and television for the African-American market is Tyler Perry.
Kathryn Hahn on Comedy Cliques, Working With Paul Rudd, and Joe Lo Truglio’s Huge Penis in Wanderlust
By Steve Heisler
Kathryn Hahn starred for years on the dramatic Crossing Jordan, but dabbled in comedy via Adam McKay and Will Ferrell–driven films Anchorman and Step Brothers. This year, Hahn is attacking the genre full-force. After her sitcom Free Agents was canned, Hahn signed on to play an upcoming part on Parks and Recreation. She’s also a manic, opinionated hippy-type in Wanderlust, the latest David Wain–directed film that stars a bevy of other talented comedic folks like Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, and Ken Marino (plus Joe Lo Truglio’s huge prosthetic penis), about a Manhattan couple who finds their way to a Georgia commune. We chatted with Hahn about comedy cliques, her strange serendipity with Paul Rudd, and what it’s like to be a control freak in Hollywood.
"As soon as you take a deep breath, you have the rug pulled out from you."
Hunger Games Cast to Cause Mall Riots Across America
Like the heartthrobs of Twilight before them, the cast of The Hunger Games will go mall to mall across our great nation to promote the March 23 release of their movie. Congrats to the teens of Los Angeles and Seattle, who will get the big three — Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth — all in one food court! As for the rest of the country: If you're Team Peeta, you'll want to camp out in Chicago or Dallas; Team Gale, you should head to Atlanta or Phoenix. And if you're Team Katniss, just head to the local Orange Julius; we hear she loves that stuff.
The Artist and More Weinstein Joints Coming to Netflix
The Weinstein Company's documentaries, foreign-language films, and a handful of others will soon start being released on Netflix. Take it away, SlashFilm: "In other words, when films like Oscar frontrunner The Artist, Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus and Madonna‘s W.E. make their TV debut, it won’t be on HBO or similar channel, but on the Netflix Watch Instantly service." It's a great look for Netflix, which has been in various states of dire need of a good look lately.
Mike Myers Has a New Character
By Kyle Buchanan
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When it comes to producing the Oscars this year, "One thing that Brian Grazer and I decided at the very beginning was we need to go for comedy," executive producer Don Mischer tells EW. To that end (and with the Oscarcast less than a week away), Oscar.com has released a comedic new short, produced with Funny or Die and starring Mike Myers and Kevin Kline. In it, Myers plays etiquette expert Sir Cecil Worthington, who teaches Kline the proper way to hold and care for his Academy Award statuette. Press play to watch, and let's try to focus on the positives ... like, Wayne's World just had its 20th anniversary! Good movie!
Chris Tucker Owes $12 Million in Back Taxes
It's been fifteen years since Chris Tucker made a movie that wasn't a Rush Hour sequel, but all of a sudden, the M.I.A. star has filmed a role in David O. Russell's next movie and might even be amenable to another installment of Friday. What spurred his return to moviemaking? We're just spitballing, but we guess it might have something to do with the insane $12 million tax lien filed against Tucker. TMZ reports that the state of Georgia just moved to secure nearly $600,000 from the actor, which bumps up his unpaid back taxes to that staggering amount. He simply did not understand the words coming out of the tax collectors' mouths.
The Nostalgia Fact-Check: Does The Bodyguard Hold Up?
By Kyle Buchanan
The Nostalgia Fact-Check is a recurring Vulture feature in which we revisit a seminal movie, TV show, or album that reflexively evinces an "Oh my God, that was the best ever!" response by a certain demographic, owing to it having been imprinted on them early. Now, years later, we'll take a look at these classics in a more objective, unforgiving adult light: Are they really the best ever? How do they hold up now? We've already reconsidered a number of once-beloved entertainments, but this week's is different, as we consider Whitney Houston's biggest film, The Bodyguard. A go-to rental for fans mourning Houston's recent death, is the movie more prescient than we thought?
Nick Offerman Joins Diablo Cody’s Lamb of God
Diablo Cody's directorial debut, a Christian-girl-goes-to-Vegas movie starring Julianne Hough (ever the wayward preacher's daughter) and Russell Brand (as her Sin City guide), may now also include some tiny hat antics. Nick Offerman has signed up alongside Hough, Brand, Holly Hunter, and Octavia Spencer for Lamb of God; no word on who Offerman will play, but we do very much hope the character in question gets hammered and re-creates the now-classic Snake Juice GIF, Vegas-style. Maybe get Octavia in on it? She seems game for that sort of thing.
Cherry Trailer: Porn Again
By Margaret Lyons
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The phrase "James Franco porn drama" contains multitudes: It at once possesses the glittering possibility of a second coming — ho, ho — of Boogie Nights, but also the trashy stench of a comically self-serious Xtube reject. Such is the trailer for Cherry, the story of tender sweet young thing (Ashley Hinshaw) who finds her way into the porn industry thanks to a skeazy dude (Franco) and the tutelage of an ex-star turned director (Heather Graham, of course). The porn aspect seems like pretty standard schoolgirl-glam stuff, but Franco muttering "I exist!" is its own brand of terrible perfection.
Your Box Office Explained: Denzel and The Vow Outdraw Ghost Rider [UPDATE]
By Claude Brodesser-Akner
This (Long) Weekend’s Winners: Safe House ($28.4 million) managed to find a secure location at the top of the box-office chart this Presidents’ Day weekend, followed closely by The Vow (No. 2 with $26.6 million), which in its second week become the highest-grossing film in the history of Screen Gems and now accounts for a fifth of all movie tickets sold this year. Meanwhile, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (No. 3 with $26.4 million) was virtually unchanged from the previous weekend, dipping barely 3 percent, helping overall box office surge by 10 percent over the same weekend last year.
Kick-Ass 2 May Film This Summer
Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar, whose series have resulted in films like Wanted and Kick-Ass, was fascinatingly profiled in Scotland's Daily Record over the weekend. One solid tidbit: Millar matter-of-factly states Kick-Ass 2 will begin filming this summer. Another gem from the Hollywood co-conspirator who's managed to avoid L.A. itself since 2008: "I took the J.K. Rowling approach. I write my books and get on with it. If anyone wants to make them into a film, they’ll make an appointment and we’ll talk in Glasgow or London ... all I want to do is my own books, to do 15 big comic books and 15 big movie franchises."
Safe House, The Vow Lead Holiday Weekend Box Office
It's a holiday weekend — well, not for those unlucky saps working Presidents' Day — which means big audiences at movie theaters across the nation. No fewer than five films are expected to break the $20 million mark with both new releases, Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider and Reese Witherspoon's sex-and-spies comedy This Means War, making the cut. While healthy, they still lag behind last weekend's leaders, Safe House and The Vow. Far removed from the blockbuster vanguard, the Star Wars 3D rerelease should pull in close to $10 million, while Chronicle and Daniel Radcliffe horror flick Woman in Black hover around $8 million each. For the moment, at least, studio bosses can sit back, growl contentedly, and cheerily suck on their fat congratulatory cigars. [Deadline]
Dame Judi Dench Reveals She Is Going Blind, Needs Help Reading Scripts
By Andre Tartar
Yesterday, Dame Judi Dench, the British actress perhaps best known as M from the James Bond series, granted an interview to the Mirror in which she spoke of being diagnosed with macular degeneration and admitted she even struggles to read her scripts or make out the faces of people standing right in front of her. At one point she even told her interviewer, "I can’t see your face at all now, but I can see your outline." The actress, currently working on her seventh James Bond pic, Skyfall, set to release later this year, has learned to cope though. "You get used to it," she says, mentioning how her daughter often helps her memorize her lines, adding that, "I’ve got lenses and glasses and things and very bright light helps. I can do a crossword if it’s bright sunshine but if a cloud comes out the next minute I can’t see anything." So for the sake of Judi Dench, we think cloudy days should be phased out.
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Judd Apatow, Kristen Wiig, Mandy Patinkin, and More at the Writers Guild Awards East
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Party Lines Slideshow: Megan Hilty, Anjelica Huston, Katharine McPhee, and More at the Premiere of Smash
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Party Lines Slideshow: Michael Fassbender, Viola Davis, George Clooney, and More at the National Board of Review Awards
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Party Lines Slideshow: Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Jeremy Renner, and More at the Premiere of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
