revisionist history

Revoting the Oscars: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

6:40AM STV | Entertainment Weekly embarked yesterday on “Recall the Gold,” a project likely to result in its most complex listicle to date: The magazine’s editors organized a mock vote by 7,000 industry insiders invited to reconsider the Academy Awards given in 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003. The ballot includes only the six “major” categories — Picture, Director and the four acting awards — and, in editor Sean Smith’s words, represents “voting without buzz.” For starters, you won’t see New Line hitting its Lord of the Rings campaign (or any campaign for that matter) quite as hard five years after its Best Picture win, and Harvey Weinstein won’t be able to buy Shakespeare in Love’s Oscar success from 10 years ago. All of which is sure to arouse dormant Hollywood justice even as it arouses the more fundamental question: Who gives a shit? More »

8:00AM STV | Red-Headed Step-Fox: The cycle of abusive box-office analysis is renewed today at the Los Angeles Times, where John Horn broke out his calculator and a hot wire hanger in assessing this summer’s winners (Paramount, Warner Bros.) and losers (Sony, Disney). And, as per recent LAT tradition, 20th Century Fox was carted in for the grand finale, an epic pinata smackdown invoking everything from Meet Dave to Fox films’ Rotten Tomatoes ratings while once again completely ignoring the total! phenomenon! that was The Happening; at last glance, Manoj’s Mint broke $150 million worldwide, which isn’t exactly a flop under the circumstances. Anyway, there’s always next year, Horn writes, “when it will have sequels to X-Men and Ice Age and a film version of The A-Team.” And don’t forget Watchmen! Seriously, John — is this even your regular beat? [LAT] More »

Nick Nolte Tells The Amazing Story Of The Infamous Mugshot That Wasn’t

2:40AM Seth | Having played everything in his long career from Barbra Streisand’s sodomy-repressing patient in The Prince of Tides to a hook-handed war diarist in the upcoming Tropic Thunder, it seems a small tragedy that the single image most associated with permagrizzled thespian Nick Nolte is his infamous mugshot. Generally regarded as the gold standard to which all celebrity booking photos are held, there was virtually no aspect of the portrait that failed to convey a purity of wrongness: the sunken features, the pained grimace, the waterlily print buttoned up to the neck, and, of course, that shock of stringy chaos atop his head, defying all laws of physics as if fashioned by some oversugared pre-schooler out of a box of golden pipe-cleaners. Entire post-graduate seminars were dedicated to exploring its mysteries and beauty. So imagine our shock when the model himself finally revealed the true story behind its conception on The Tonight Show. This wasn’t a mugshot at all, it turns out, but Nolte’s selfless contribution to the Sacramento Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund. More »