1.29.2008

To Dos Day

___ Item 1: CHECK OUT MY NEW HAIRDO.
That would be ME, interviewing Valentino! (via Reddish68)

___ Item 2: WISH HAPPY BLOGGING B'DAY.
Long-time StinkyPal and inaugural Smackdowner Nick (of Nick'sFlickPicks) celebrated his ten-year web-birthday this week. Wow. Happy happy, honey. Truth be told, though, just reading that birthday post made me realize how much of an über-slacker I actually am. But since Nick'sFlickPicks is undoubtedly one the most delightfully and generously intelligent souls I've yet to encounter in the real or blog world, I must give it up and bask in the accomplished glow. So, wish the dear smartypants a hearty congrats already!!!

___ Item 3: AVOID WORK...BEAUTIFULLY.
Between Scrabulous and now Scramble on Facebook, it's a wonder I ever get anything done. (I betcha Nick doesn't Scrabulous...) And then when things like this gorgeous little interview (and accompanying video!!!) arrive in my inbox? Well, I'm just lost. (Elizabeth Mitchell -- of Ida and Liz&Lisa and You Are My Flower -- is possibly my favorite singer. Ever. And now she's got singing spawn. I'm a goner...)

___ Item 4: VOTE AGAIN AND AGAIN.
Log your support for new StinkyPal RuralJuror whose been nominated for the big time: he's a 2008 Bloggie nominee as "Best Teen Blog." So smart, so witty, so young -- so yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay, RuralJuror!!! So lovely reader, go vote for RuralJuror . Vote early, vote often, vote already. (And, of course, should you have the opportunity, please do cast a ballot in a US presidential primary near you. StinkyLulu's finally -- after much waffling -- made a decision.)

___ Item 5: MARVEL AT THE COINCIDENCE.
Tom + Hillary = Scary. (via bluegum)

___ Item 6: SUPPORTING ACTRESSING '08?
Slayton (aka whip-smart) over at The Glorious Diatribe has built a handy checklist of the upcoming notable Supporting Actress turns on the 2008 horizon. Be sure to check it out! Which raises an interesting question: what actressing at the edges are YOU most looking forward to in 2008, lovely reader? Share your anticipatory love in comments.

Have at it, lovelies.

1.27.2008

Saoirse Ronan in Atonement (2007) - Supporting Actress Sundays

With the nominations for Best Supporting Actress announced this past week, so begins a new month of Supporting Actress Sundays, this time examining the acclaimed actresses at the edge of 2007. This year's crew falls both inside and outside the usual categories (or Supporting Actress Stock Characters). On the one hand we've got a couple that defy convention, with both a gender-bending illusionist and a standard-issue corporate gal loaded with hidden depths of evil in her soul. On the other hand, though, we're squarely in Supporting Actress tradition with a coupla mommas - one good, one bad bad bad - and this year's little miss sunshine...

...Saoirse Ronan in Atonement (2007).
(very) approximately 22 minutes and 33 seconds
28 scenes

roughly 18% of film's total running time
Saoirse Ronan plays writer Briony Tallis as a young girl, when the character's at her most confident, precocious and self-possessed. (Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave each play Briony at a later stage of life, as a young woman and as an older woman, respectively. According to director Joe Wright, each elder actress based their approach to the character upon careful study of Ronan's work in the film's earlier scenes.)
At age ten or so, Ronan's Briony is a serious writer, a diligent spinner of stories and tapper of typewriter keys. She's also a keen observer of the human condition, at least the views of it she's afforded from the particular perspective the environs of her aristocratic British upbringing with its requisite country estate.
As the film begins, Ronan's Briony is intently finishing the manuscript for her first playscript, which she intends to have performed in honor of her eldest brother's return that evening. She delivers the script to her mother, marching through the vast estate, pausing only to discuss her script with the gardener Robby (James McAvoy, in a hunka hunka heartthrob turn that will almost certainly boost his already burgeoning career).
Ronan's Briony can barely sit still long enough to hear her mother's effusive praise of her script before it's off to the lawn to lie languorously on the lawn with her sister, Cecilia, to discuss the relative merits of prose versus drama in conveying authorial intent.
In this quick battery of opening scenes, Ronan's Briony establishes herself as a child in a world of adults who nonetheless considers herself among peers. Indeed, Briony may barely be in the double digits but it's clear she considers herself equal -- if not the superior -- to the adults who surround her.
Briony's preternatural poise and self-assurance is only rattled when she's forced to deal with children, as when she's obliged to enlist some young guests of the estate to help her put on her play. In a single scene, Ronan demonstrates that Briony's not as fundamentally confident as she pretends to be but, rather, that Briony's very good at manipulating adults.
The unruliness of her age-peers unsettles Briony, and she takes quick refuge in doing what she does best: observing. She peers out the window and watches her sister Cecilia and gardener Robby share a mysterious, charged interaction.
The ambiguity of the interaction collides with Briony's instinctive certainty that she understands everything, more than anyone else knows. And so begins the quick spin of life-changing events that unfold through the remainder of that day: a misdelivered letter; a predatory houseguest; a girl with the unfortunately fateful name of Lola; a couple of missing boys; two separate occasions of Briony catching a couple in fragrante delicto; and an accusation.
Ronan's accomplishment in the role of Briony is formidable. She constructs a character who takes great comfort, confidence and pleasure in being correct. She also builds a character who's absolutely certain she's not taken seriously enough. It's not simply that Briony seeks attention, though she does. Rather, Briony wants her perspective and point of view to be valued, noticed, taken seriously.
Nothing pisses Briony off more than being passed over, being dismissed, being not taken seriously. Ronan's performance conveys that basic fact of Briony with clarity, complexity and empathy. Whether she accuses Robby out of jealousy, out of social righteousness, out of fury that he and Cecilia walked past her pretending she didn't exist, or out of interest in spinning a good yarn -- we do not know. Even more, it's to the credit of Ronan's performance that we understand that each explanation of her accusation might be true.
Saoirse Ronan's work as Briony Tallis is uncommonly deft. The character requires bold, clear, unambiguous choices. Briony might yet be a girl but she knows precisely who she thinks she is. Ronan nails Briony's certainty -- this clarity of self-possession -- with swift, accurate strokes. But that's the easy part, the notes any competent kid actress could have hit.
No, where Saoirse Ronan's performance goes beyond "exceedingly competent kid actor" into the realm of genuine actressing is Ronan's nuanced scoring of the cracks in Briony's soon-to-crumble façade of certainty. Ronan shows us the crackle of doubt even as she maintains the young Briony's brilliant certitude. And thus, Saoirse Ronan lays the foundation for the rest of the film.
Indeed, if Atonement works at all (and I remain unconvinced that it does), it's because of the clarity, precision, and personality of Saoirse Ronan's Briony.

1.26.2008

This Week in Supporting Actressness


Talia Shire in The Godfather, Part II (1974) on A&E
Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles (1974) on AMC
Gloria Stuart in Titanic (1997) on TNT
Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias (1989) on TNT
Melinda Dillon in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) on AMC

Anne Archer in Fatal Attraction (1987) on Lifetime
Grace Kelly in Mogambo (1953) on TCM
Beatrice Straight in Network (1976) on TCM
Karen Black in Five Easy Pieces (1970) on TCM
Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) on CMT

1.25.2008

5 Stinky Thoughts on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew - Episode 3: "New Arrival"

Each week I offer a quick recaplet on the latest episode of the new VH1 experiment in candid celebreality, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. The fun continues this week with episode 3, "New Arrival."

Thought #1: How 'Bout That New Rehabitant?
Oh. My. Cripes. This episode made me crabbier than previous installments. And I blame new our "rehabitant," Ricco "Suave" Rodriguez. Such a pluckin' princess. It's interesting to me that the first "celebrity" with whom I had absolutely no experience with prior to this series is the only one who really anticipated special celebrity treatment. Which Shelly wasn't going to give, so Suavecito decided she was the devil. First, pobre Suavecito didn't appreciate being treated like a drug addict. While being processed into rehab. Poor poor Ricco. Second, big man Suavecito got all scared of skinny little NurseShelly, later threatening to put her into a headlock, because she called him on his "funny story": you know the one about the time where he had the near fatal car accident while driving with a revoked license; the one when he moved his girlfriend's unconscious, injured body into the driver's seat so it wouldn't look like he was driving so he wouldn't get in trouble with his probation for all his previous DUIs; the time when he tricked everyone and got the injured mother of his child to take the rap for the entire accident? (I won't even get into his insistence on calling himself a "phenomenal father" when his only son is in Child Protective Custody.) Chyna's famewhoring has her just being dumb about doing rehab so she can be on tv, but Ricco's famewhoring denial is a whole 'nother pot of clueless. (Oh, and that testosterone toxicity moment where Da Baldwin tried to commiserate with Ricco? Ew. The pairing of Suavecito and DaBaldwin is noxious: two bullies gathering to swap stories about how they're the real victims here. Plus, trashtalker Da Baldwin had to insult "the 21 year old" -- the same one he's tried to play Big Daddy with -- in the process.) But speaking of Da Baldwin...

Thought #2: Severe Chronic Assholism, Exhibit B.
Da Baldwin's at it again. Daniel Baldwin doesn't know how to shut up. Not only does he really believe his own "I am only here to help others with my quality sobriety" hype, but he insists on implicating others in his righteous self-aggrandizement. This episode began with Da Baldwin delivering some of his "your behavior is dangerous to my sobriety" schtick to resident disaster/loopylou Conaway. The tough love seemed almost to work for just a moment, but then Da Baldwin had to toss out the accusation (weirdly circulated by Dr.Drew) that Conaway had brought in a secret stash of drugs (translation: a cokedusty $20 bill) which triggered Conaway's heavily previewed "NO-I-did-NOT-take-that-BACK" jag. For some reason, Da Baldwin felt the need to preface his accusation with the phrase "unbeknownst to you," a phrase Da Baldwin repeated again and again as Conaway stood to take him on in a fight. Final count? In the 61 second confrontation, Baldwin lobbed 10 "unbeknownsts" (with one "unbeknownst" assist from Dr. Drew) for a full count of 11 "unbeknownsts" to Conaway's 6 "NO-I-did-NOT-take-that-BACKs." (Though Conaway should get extra points for turning things back on Baldwin, using "it was beknownst to me" in the first exchange after their faux-confrontation.) Alas, Da Baldwin sorta ended up getting the last word, which might just be one of his hobbies, and which he insisted on trumpeting over lunch, in another monolog devoted to diminishing and judging Conaway. (Even perpetual people pleaser Brigitte Nielson couldn't keep up with Baldwin's sobriety sermon as she became briefly absorbed in the food she had spilled on her pants.) Da Baldwin just wipes me out. Next week's previews are teasing that Baldwin leaves Celebrity Rehab because the surroundings are "not conducive to his sobriety" and I can't help but wonder if the absence of DaBaldwin's supersoberself might be more conducive to everyone else's serenity.

Thought #3: Moments of Clarity with NurseShelly.
After receding a little to the background last week, this episode brought Nurse Shelly back to the center where I'm always happy to see her. Indeed, there were an abundance of "Moments of Clarity" from dear NurseShelly this week. I loved her "how not to dress like a slut" moments with Mary Carey (who is easily my favorite rehabitant right now, such a mess but somehow sweet and so so lost). I loved how she dealt with the Conaway puke-crisis. I loved her handling of the cell-phone standoff with Conaway. But the true moment of clarity from NurseShelly is without a doubt her measured, clear response to Ricco Rodriguez's car accident story: "That sounds like a pretty hideous experience." (I did sorta love it, too, that Suavecito's girlfriend -- who's still with the idiot/wtf? -- took Shelly's side when Suavecito whined about her not liking his story when everyone else always does: "That's because your friends are scumbags and Shelly's a good person.") This was the episode, too, when Shelly "came out" as being in recovery. (But I knew that already. Her bullshit detector is pretty finely tuned...)

Thought #4: What I Didn't Need To See.
Again, a fart moment leads our contemplation of what I didn't need to see - as when Conaway's enabler/girlfriend Vikki called him out on tootin'. But I wasn't so grossed out by the flatulence as I was by Vikki herself. That woman makes me nervous. Her gaze seems entirely dilated. She's totally scamming off Conaway's cash. She's completely dumb. She's got the weirdest fashion sense -- a cross between a witchy 80s rocker chick and "Real Housewives of Orange County" (I betcha she's got a collection of pewter dragons in storage somewhere). But what I really didn't need to see? Vikki's screen test for the movie based on her life. Each shot of Vikki - she's finding her angle, she's "making a choice", she's playing the scene. Seeing her with Conaway this episode, I realized that their relationship is one giant scene-study class, played for maximum dramatic impact in front of what has been, until now, a verrry small audience. Vikki clearly sees this as her "big break" - her chance to be discovered and finally kick-start her screen career... And she's just bad. Bad for Jeff. Bad on camera. Bad bad bad.

Thought #5: Celebrity Rehab's Lessons in Sobriety.
This episode may have been the first episode to really test my patience. And therein lies this week's "Lesson in Sobriety from Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew": addicts are addicted to their own bullshit. And their bullshit can be a real pain in the ass. It was all over the place this week, what with the cockfighting instigated by DaBaldwin and Suavecito, along with the arrival of the terrifying Vikki. But the same thing was at work in Jaimee Foxworth's breakdown in group and Mary Carey's "to be or not to be a giant slut" dilemma. For addicts, the drug becomes the easiest way to sustain the insanity of one's own bullshit. Which creates the dilemma of sobriety: when the drug goes away, what's left is the insane bullshit, for which the addict "needs" the drug in order to survive. It's tough and it's real but the bullshit is usually ridiculous. Which is why I loved so much the "whatever" approach that NurseShelly and DrDrew took to Conaway's threats to leave the facility when NurseShelly tried to take away his phone. DrDrew arrived, clearly in from dinner and/or a date, guns ablazing. (Nice guns, DrDrew.) DrDrew could barely keep from giggling, loosening food from his teeth, as he talked Conaway down. DrDrew's advice is good for everyone: "when in doubt, act as if you are sane." Part of getting sober is shaking the hold of one's own insane bullshit. Unfortunately, from the look of things on Day 4 of a 21 Day treatment process, seems like most of these folks are unwilling to kick the habit of their own particular brand of crazy.

Please do share your thoughts in comments, beloveds.
And be sure to tune in next week for every addict's favorite thing:
MORE!!!

1.24.2008

To Dos Day

___ Item 1: GET READY.
With the nominations for Supporting Actress - 2007 announced, it's time for "Supporting Actress Sunday" profiles of each of the nominees. Things'll start this week with either Saoirse or Ruby, with Amy and Tilda coming later as the dvds are released. As for Cate, I'm crossing my fingers I'll be able to find a way to screen the film again...otherwise it'll be a verrrrrry impressionistic profile. (AND there's still time to holler in for a slot on the Smackdown panel for 2007!) Let the fun begin!

___ Item 2: GIVE A MOMENT'S PAUSE.
Heath Ledger's passing has gathered so much empathy, piling upon the unshocking shock of Brad Refro's passing (and completely obscuring Lois Nettleton's) to create an expression of collective sadness I've just not seen on the entertainment blog-circuit. As regards Mr. Ledger, though, it's been extraordinary, really, how so so many seem to share Nathaniel's sentiments. Ledger's work as Ennis did bring him inside so many folks' hearts, including mine. And though I'd love to be as eloquent as Nick, I've felt mostly just very selfish, nursing my private disappointment that one of my favorite casting fantasies -- to have Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play brothers -- will remain forever unrealized. Then, today, StinkyLulu's mamabear instincts were starting to get all riled, what with this and that crazy pooping their assholism. But, just as I started getting really crabby, along came pajiba, with a link to my favorite Heath Ledger memorial yet. The first to make me puddle up. The first to soothe the sore ache that had settled on my heart. You rock, Chelsea Talks Smack, you rock. Thanks.

___ Item 3: TELL STINKYLULU WHAT TO DO.
StinkyLulu's very first Reader Feedback Survey is still open for input. Please do fill it out if you haven't. Already, replies to this survey have inspired a couple of great ideas for new Supporting Actress features, while also helping to clarify which aspects of StinkyLulu to prioritize in this new year. (And I've already incorporated one bit of feedback into this very post - any guesses?) So, lovely reader, if you'd be so kind as to complete the survey, I'd be much obliged. And, please, if the survey creates ideas or questions, please do let Lulu know.

___ Item 4: TORTURE STINKYLULU A LITTLE.
Be sure to cast your vote for which Razzie nominated Supporting Actress performance should receive the "Supporting Actress Sunday" treatment. Bring on the badness, dear ones, bring it on!!!

___ Item 5: ABSORB SOME STRANGE BEAUTY.
The photo-project at Secretly Creepy is just astonishing. The simple genius of the premise is breathtaking. (via someone - I fergit - sorry)

___ Item 6: WATCH MISS AMERICA.
It's on this Saturday, with the final episode of the crazyfun Miss America - Reality Check finishing up on Friday. One of the contestants -- Miss New Mexico, natch -- just happens to be one of StinkyLulu's former students. To be more precise, one of this year's contestants just happens to be one of StinkyLulu's smartest, sweetest, funniest and most talented former students. So, being a Miss America geek from way back to the Susan Powell days, StinkyLulu'll be watching. And you?

Have at it, lovelies.

1.22.2008

Antonia Franceschi in Fame (1980) - Blog for Choice Day 2008

The following is my contribution -- done StinkyLulu-style -- to Blog for Choice Day - 2008, a virtual event which asks us all to contemplate the necessity of using our vote to support the future of reproductive freedom.

This year's "Blog for Choice Day" asks that we all consider the importance of using our votes to support political candidates who are committed to preserving, fortifying and extending reproductive freedom in the United States. And when I contemplated how I might contribute a post to this event, I couldn't help but reflect on how unplanned pregnancies popped up all over the cinematic landscape in 2007. Notably, unplanned pregnancy provided the narrative impetus for the three of the most acclaimed -- in both critical and box-office terms -- comedies of the year (Knocked Up, Waitress and Juno). Yet, in a paradox that we might call "The Smushmortion Contradiction of 2007", the word abortion was nearly unmentioned in U.S. cinema. (The Romanian film 4 Weeks, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which I have not yet had the opportunity to see, seems to an international exception proving this year's American rule). Any number of feminists have commented on this "Smushmortion Contradiction" -- see my favorite such post here -- but I found myself most interested in how the delicacy, the tentativeness, the fear with which the option of terminating a pregnancy is treated in film today, a full 1/3 century after Roe v. Wade. Indeed, this trepidation seems such a start contrast to films from the first decade after Roe, suggesting that contemporary U.S. filmmakers are trapped inside The Lake of Fire, censoring themselves for fear of controversy. Think back to some of those films of the 1980s, films which unobtrusively took for granted that the world was a better place for women when they had the option of choice: the frankness of Jennifer Jason Leigh's character arc in Fast Times at Ridgemont High; the terror of the botched abortion in Dirty Dancing; and the character arc performed by...


...Antonia Franceschi in Fame (1980).
approximately 6 minutes and 51 seconds
8 scenes

roughly 5% of film's total running time

Antonia Franceschi plays Hilary Van Doren, a rich white girl who lands (at the beginning of "Sophomore Year") in the midst of the multicultural urban swirl of the New York City's High School for the Performing Arts.

Franceschi's Hilary is a gifted dancer, who brandishes her racial and economic privilege with weary cruelty. She hates her stepmother, reveres her absent mother, and seems intent on being a "bad girl" ostensibly to get the attention of her distracted father.

The film tells us little of Hilary's backstory (though it seems safe to assume that she's been kicked out of any number of "better" schools than Performing Arts).

Franceschi's performance operates in slow reveal. When we first see her, gossiping in ballet class, she seems like just another dancing princess. But within a quick set of dialog-while-dancing scenes, Franceschi begins to show that her Hilary is neither a delicate ballerina nor a talentless rich bitch.

Rather, she's a badass on pointe.

Franceschi's Hilary seduces the film's "wicked" Leroy and, without condescension, Franceschi clues us in that Hilary's erotic rebellion against her Park Avenue privilege is complicated. As Franceschi's Hilary chatters about herself while escorting Leroy through the fanciest building he's ever been in, Franceschi begins to show that behind that bravado of a white girl who can banter with the black girls ("yes, but who wants diabetes") stands a young woman not sure whether she's loved.

And the slow reveal of Franceschi's performance is echoed in the character's longest, simplest and most memorable scene.

Director Alan Parker frames Franceschi's Hilary in a long shot, showing her sitting in a chair at the base of an opulent staircase. As the character rattles about her difficult decision to accept a position in a West Coast ballet company, rationalizing and justifying and explaining the sacrifice, his camera slowly climbs in toward her in a single shot. Franceschi's Hilary continues to talk about her dreams as a dancer and, as she details her fantasies about the legendary roles "just coming out of her feet," emotions well to the surface of Franceschi's face, its adolescent angles highlighting Hilary's vulnerability and isolation.
And in one of the great "gotchas" of American melodrama (I've seen the scene literally hundreds of times and it invariably squeezes my heart every time), the camera's first look away from Franceschi's Hilary is to a woman in a starched nurse's cap, followed by Hilary's reveal: "There's just no room for a baby." To which the nurse, not unkindly, asks whether she'll be paying with MasterCharge or AmericanExpress. Only then does the film settle into an acknowledgment that Hilary's pregnant, probably by Leroy, and is now deciding to terminate the pregnancy. And in a flash, all that comes before resonates in an entirely different depth. (A critique of this scene -- that the film sets Hilary up as a sexually empowered girl/woman only to punish her for precisely that; that white women with resources always have access to medical procedures that poorer, browner women don't -- might be right, but there's something else in the character that, for me, is just as crucial. The film allowed me, as a Fame-obsessed teenaged sissyboy in the early 80s, to empathize with the dilemma of choice. My reaction to the character then is much like my reaction now. I remember not liking the character at all, hating her a little and fearing her a lot, until this final scene when I, for the first time, empathized with the difficulty of her decision to terminate her pregnancy. And when was the last time a mainstream US film allowed you to empathize with the challenge of choice in such a complex, humane way?)

Franceschi's raw emotional openness -- the uncertainty of her certainty that she's making the right choice for herself and her future -- is staggeringly apt for an actress in her screen debut. Franceschi's Hilary offers an astonishingly rare presentation of the emotional complexity of choice and, because I can honestly say that her character presented my first challenge to think seriously about reproductive freedom, I'm grateful that I started that journey following the terms instigated by Antonia Franceschi's performance. This brief scene is frank, simple, brutal, honest, emotional, and humane -- in short, precisely what qualities we must prioritize when having conversations about reproductive freedom. Voting to support reproductive freedom is my "voting issue", my only litmus test to determine whether or not I can or will support a candidate. As a gay man with no plans to parent, that may seem odd. But, for me, it's a no-brainer. Our choice to, or not to, procreate should not determine our value in a free society. Which is why, after this cinematic year of the Smushmortion, I am so grateful that I came to cinematic consciousness when I did, when a women's right to choose was depicted not a lake of fire but as one option along the path toward her best future.

Take a look at Antonia Franceschi's work in Fame again. It's the work of a fine young actress who's gone on to become a formidable dancer and performance artist in the UK. And consider using your vote this year to support, fortify and extend reproductive freedom.

Best Supporting Actress Nominees - 2007

And Kathy Bates says the 2007 nominees for Best Supporting Actress are...

Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There
Ruby Dee in American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan in Atonement
Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton


SUPER QUICK ANALYSIS
: The four nominations have been fairly secure for months now (Blanchett, Ronan, Ryan, and Swinton), leaving only one nomination slot "open". I had expected that slot to go to a "coaster" -- a Supporting Actress who slides into the nomination because of the general abundance of nominations for a particular film. It had seemed that Catherine Keener might benefit from such "coasting" but the apparent disaffection for Into the Wild among Academy voters left her out. The "alternate coaster" -- Jennifer Garner in Juno -- also didn't sneak through which is also almost a surprise. Ruby Dee's nomination, however, is a pleasure, if only for acclaim it retroactively affords her extraordinary career. And with her trouping compatriot Hal Holbrook over in Supporting Actor, a nomination for an elder in the Supporting category becomes a way to toss some token of appreciation to a widely respected, if not widely loved, film. Which, if anything, is the story from this year's crop of Supporting Actress nominees...

AND ANOTHER THING: I'm a bit disappointed, though, that Blanchett got double-nommed. Not uncommonly, and reaching all the way back at least to Teresa Wright in 1942, a nomination in Best Actress tips the odds toward the double-nominee's winning in Best Supporting. (The recent exception being, of course, Julianne Moore in 2002, who won neither; the argument there, though, was that her pair of 50s housewives diminished the impression of versatile accomplishment rather than underscoring it.) The sheer feat of Blanchett's cross-gender inhabitation/impersonation of Dylan has fortified her as the frontrunner for what seems like forever. Now, the double-nom seems to clinch it. All of which makes it two years in a row where my favorite category feels like a foregone conclusion...

AND ON ANOTHER FRONT: I'm so pleased at how many women got nominated in writing categories (3 of the 5 original screenplay noms and 1 nom in adapted, with -- arguably -- Marjane Satrapi's authorship of Persepolis being acknowledged as well in the animated noms).

Profiles of 2007 Supporting Actress nominees begin this Sunday...

1.21.2008

Cast Your Vote for which RAZZIE NOMINEE should receive StinkyLulu's "Supporting Actress" treatment?

On this "Nomination Eve", I confess to being a touch weary with all the prognosticating. (The Film Experience has a full listing of all this predictionizing here.) Not being much blessed in the prediction department, I always feel a little out of the loop even as I marvel at the intelligence, the wit and the clarity of many of those lists. Ultimately, though, with each set of predictions, I get a wee tiny bit crankier. Just gimme my nominees!!! Which is precisely just what those odd folks over at The Razzies DO on "Nomination Eve": they announce their nominees for the year's WORST performance.

And The Razzie nominees for
2007's WORST Supporting Actress are:
Jessica Biel in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Quite the roster, eh.
And because I'm so devoted to the especial cause of actressing at the edges, I am going to throw myself on the sword here and promise to give StinkyLulu's Supporting Actress treatment to at least ONE of the 2007 Razzie Nominees. So cast your vote in the column at right and tell StinkyLulu which performance you think most deserves this extra bit of attention. (I've not seen any of the movies, so I'm surely in for a treat!)