Media Morsels 12.17.10

Awards, awards and more awards. That’s the theme this week. Nominations came out for the Critics’ Choice awards, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actor’s Guild. This week’s media morsels are a round up of award-related “stuff” (plus a couple of bonus, non-award items).

Let’s begin

• The Critics’ Choice Nominees: Black Swan leads the pack with a record 12 nominations (I’m mostly listing the nominees I’ve seen or simply like their body of work; visit bfca.org for the full list of nominees)
• Picture – 127 Hours; Inception; The Fighter; The King’s Speech; The Social Network; Black Swan
• Actor – Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network; Colin Firth, The King's Speech; James Franco, 127 Hours; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
• Actress – Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• Supporting Actor – Andrew Garfield (!!!), The Social Network; Mark Ruffalo (!!), The Kids Are All Right; Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech; Christian Bale, The Fighter
• Supporting Actress – Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech; Amy Adams, The Fighter; Melissa Leo, The Fighter
• Acting Ensemble (love that they give this award!) – The Kids Are All Right; The King’s Speech; The Social Network; The Fighter
  (Much as I loved, loved, loved The Social Network, if we’re talking about an ensemble really making the movie as incredible as it was, my vote’s for The Kids Are All Right)
• Director – Danny Boyle, 127 Hours; David Fincher, The Social Network; Christopher Nolan, Inception; Tom Hooper, The King's Speech; Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
  (The direction and camera work were my least favorite things about The King’s Speech, so while this nomination is not a surprise, I don’t fully agree with Hooper’s nomination)
• Original Screenplay – Christopher Nolan, Inception; Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, The Fighter
• Adapted Screenplay – Aaron Sorkin (!!!), The Social Network; Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle, 127 Hours;
• Cinematography – Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, 127 Hours; Wally Pfister, Inception; Danny Cohen, The King’s Speech;
  (I’m torn between 127 Hours and Inception. I think for the sheer number of different worlds he had to capture, I’m going for Pfister’s work on Inception)
• Sound – 127 Hours; Inception; The Social Network
  (It’s a toss up for me; each used sound to great effect)
• Action Movie + Comedy – Inception (action); Cyrus (comedy)
• Made for TV Movie – all from HBO: The Pacific; Temple Grandin; You Don’t Know Jack
• Song – "If I Rise," 127 Hours; "Shine," Waiting for Superman (written by John Legend and performed by Legend and The Roots)
• Score – Hans Zimmer, Inception; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network; Alexandre Desplat, The King’s Speech
  
  
• Other Critics’ Choices
  The Social Network has been cleaning up at several regional critics’ awards, most recently taking top honors from the New York Film Critics Award. The film also won best director. It did not win any acting or writing awards. Normally, I’d say this is a travesty (at least in the writing department), what with Aaron Sorkin being in the running, but in this particular race “best screenplay” isn’t broken down into original and adapted; New York film critics chose Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg’s The Kids Are All Right and that choice is all right by me. Kids’ actors picked up some awards, too. Mark Ruffalo won for best supporting actor and Annette Bening won for best actress, besting the much buzzed about Natalie Portman.
  
  
• SAG Awards
  Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced this week. The Social Network, The Kids Are All Right, Modern Family, Boardwalk Empire and Glee all did very well, nabbing individual nominations for some of its stars (like Mark Ruffalo and Jesse Eisenberg) as well as ensemble nods. Visit sag.org for the full list of nominees.
  
  
• Golden Globe Reactions
  The Hollywood Reporter caught up with several nominees to capture their reactions. Among the folks they spoke with are Aaron Sorkin, Laura Linney, Natalie Portman and James Franco. Visit hollywoodreporter.com to get their and other nominees’ reactions.
  
  
• Oscar Update
  The first slew of Oscar presenters were announced this week. Usually presenters include past winners, as it’s customary for last year’s winner (for the acting awards) to present this year's award to their opposite gender counterpart. (So after Reese Witherspoon won her Best Actress Oscar, the next year she presented the Best Actor Oscar.) So naturally, this year Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock will present awards. Joining them will be Halle Berry, Marisa Tomei and Oprah. No official announcement about last year’s winners Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique presenting, but they’ll probably be announced in short order. Visit oscars.org to read the press release.
  
  In other Oscar news, this week we learned which songs are eligible for Best Song nominations. Among those eligible is John Legend for his song, "Shine," from the documentary Waiting for Superman. Read the full list of 41 eligible songs on Playbill.com.
  
  
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 2011
  The next class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees was announced on Wednesday. The class of 2011 is comprised of Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Darlene Love, Dr John and Tom Waits. Rolling Stone reports that Leon Russell will receive the Award for Musical Excellence and Jac Holzman and Art Rupe will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award. The honorees will be inducted at a ceremony in New York on March 14; it will be broadcast live on Fuse. Visit rollingstone.com for more details.
  
  
• Keeping with the awards theme: Ryan Gosling is getting lots of buzz for his work in Blue Valentine (see above). MTV recently caught up with him and are presenting three interview clips in which Ryan talks about why women are attracted to him; a weird internet sensation; and when he’ll tie the knot.
  
  
• Though not a nominee for anything film related, Mark Rylance is a Tony and Olivier winner and will likely be nominated for a Tony in 2011 for his work in either La Bete or Jerusalem. This week, Broadway.com spoke to him about keeping his 30-minute speech in La Bete fresh every night and bringing Jerusalem stateside.
  
  
• Time’s Top Ten
  This week, Time magazine announced its Person of the Year, Mark Zuckerberg, and a slew of Top Ten lists. Some of the tens they rounded up are the ten best plays and musicals (which they got horribly wrong; La Cage? Seriously? A View from the Bridge? That was last year!); top ten TV series, including Boardwalk Empire and The Good Wife; and top ten numbers (check it out). Perhaps the most disturbing thing, though, was the fact that a news magazine dedicated two top ten lists to Twitter-related items and yet had a category for the most underreported news stories. Hello! You’re a news magazine. Get off Twitter and get on the stories!

Bonus Non-Award Items

• American Idiot Comings and Goings
  This past Sunday, American Idiot said goodbye to two original cast members, Mary Faber (Heather) and Joshua Kobak (Swing). Faber is getting ready to start rehearsals for the Broadway revival of How to Succeed… in which she’ll play Smitty and star opposite Daniel Radcliffe. American Idiot welcomed Jeanna de Waal to the company; she takes over the role of Heather. Kobak is heading over to the Foxwoods theatre to swing in to action in Spider-Man.
  
  It was also announced this week that Michael Esper (Will) has been cast in Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures. Esper appeared in the production when it played Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater in 2009. There’s no official word on when Esper’s last day as an Idiot will be, but I’ll keep you posted.
  
  All this makes me think that the show will close after Billie Joe finishes his return engagement with the show in February. However, at the moment tickets are still on sale through May 1 to if you’re in town, head on over to the St. James Theatre and say hello to the ridiculously talented Idiots.
  
  Happy Holidays, From the Idiots (and Jujamcyn)
  This Wednesday, American Idiot's leading men, John Gallagher, Jr., Michael Esper and Stark Sands traversed cold New York City singing carols. Playbill.com caught them in the act. And click here to see video of the talented Idiots performing. Plus, chcek out this video from Jujamcyn, the production organization supporting American Idiot; it's their way of saying "thank you" to theatre goers for making the year such a good one for them. You're welcome, Jujamcyn!
  
  
• Side by Side by Susan Blackwell
  Susan Blackwell and her sharp tongue are back, this time with Zachary Quinto. Have a peek in on their conversation as they hang out in a dog park and play, obviously, Name That Dog!
  
  
• Spider-Man Delayed
  Seems I'm not the only one to think that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark's book needs work. Word came this week that the show, currently in previews at the Foxwoods Theatre, will delay its official opening from January 11 to February 7, according to the New York Times, in an effort to work on major revisions to the book.