Showbiz Sandbox 44: And The (Six) Oscars Go To… “Hurt Locker”
March 8, 2010
The ballots have been counted, the envelopes have been opened and the nominees have undoubtedly returned their ball gowns and tuxes. Finally, after all the news coverage and public speculation about who would this year’s Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences put us out of our misery on Sunday during their annual awards ceremony. The proceedings lasted more than three hours as usual and provided very few surprises.
Katheryn Bigelow made history by being the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for “The Hurt Locker”, which won six awards in total including Best Screenplay and Best Picture. Jim Cameron’s “Avatar” won three technical awards for art direction, cinematography and visual effects. One of the night’s biggest surprises was when Geoffrey Fletcher walked off with the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for “Precious”, upsetting Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air”.
As we predicted on last week’s episode, Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for “Crazy Heart”, Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for “The Blind Side”, Mo’Nique won Best Supporting Actress for “Precious” and Christolph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for “Inglorious Basterds”. Damien Bona, co-author of the book Inside Oscar
Believe it or not, there were a few other entertainment news stories this week besides the Oscars. In fact, the Oscars weren’t even the only awards show. The Spirit Awards were handed out the day before the Academy Awards and “Precious” walked of with. . . well, just about every top prize. At movie theatres, Tim Burton’s 3D adaptation of “Alice In Wonderland” opened to over $210 million worldwide, setting records for a March debut.
Over in the world of television, Conan O’Brien may no longer have a talk show, but he does have a Twitter account. Maybe he can use it to promote his upcoming live stage tour. Viacom has pulled “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” off of Hulu (for now). Is the move just a negotiating tactic for Viacom to get an ownership stake in Hulu?
Meanwhile Disney was getting into scuffles of its own. It pulled the entire ABC network off of Cablevision over a retransmission fee dispute with the cable operator. If you don’t know what retransmission is all about, make sure to listen to this week’s Inside Baseball segment to get caught up on a topic you are sure to hear more about in the months ahead.
‘The Hurt Locker’ Wins Big At Oscars
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/movies/awardsseason/08oscars.html
“Precious” Tops Spirit Awards
http://www.indiewire.com/article/list_of_spirit_award_winners_in_progress/pem
Indie Spirits: “Precious” Sweeps, Izzard and LA Live Fizzle
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2010/03/06/indie_spirits….
Conan O’Brien Live Tour Confirmed
http://showbiz411.blogs.thr.com/2010/03/05/conan-obrien-live-tour-confirmed/
Conan Twitter Tracker: How Conan Met Sarah
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/03/conan-twitter-tracker….
Joaquin Phoenix says he’s ready to act; just looking for good script
http://showbiz411.blogs.thr.com/2010/03/06/joaquin-phoenix-says-hell-come….
Viacom Pulls Daily Show/Colbert Report from Hulu
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/viacom-will-take-daily….
Bill Would Deny Tax Credit For Movies With Gay Characters
http://staugustine.com/news/2010-03-08/bill-would-deny-tax-credit-movies….
At The Last Minute, A Disney-Cablevision Truce
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/media/08cable.html
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