Awards Watch: The Globes

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globes are not known for their logic. This is, after all, the group that named Scent of a Woman best picture of the year in 1992, over The Crying Game, Howards End and Unforgiven. And this year's awards are shaping up to be no different with the recent news of certain category placements.

The HFPA's eligibility committee recently deemed the following films, which mix elements of comedy and drama, as contenders in their comedy or musical races: Charlie Wilson's War, The Darjeeling Limited, Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Margot at the Wedding, The Savages and Waitress. Conversely, I'm Not There, the biopic of music legend Bob Dylan, will compete in the dramatic races. In the acting categories, There's Cate Blanchett (along with Hairspray's John Travolta and The Assassination of Jesse James' Casey Affleck) will compete in the supporting categories, while Russell Crowe will go head to head with himself in the lead category for both American Gangster and 3:10 to Yuma.

However, most controversial is their decision to place the star of Foreign Language film nominee La Vie en Rose, Marion Cotillard, in the Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical category. The Globes are notorious for throwing music biopics (Coal Miner's Daughter, Walk the Line) into these categories, where, more often then not, they or their actors win over actual comedic or musical films or performances. Newsflash to the Globes: just because a movie contains someone singing (or, like Globe winner Jamie Foxx in Ray, lip-syncing to the real singer's original recordings) does not mean it is a musical. And of course, with Cotillard (not to mention Margot's Nicole Kidman and Savages' Laura Linney) in this particular race, it throws my original predictions for this category out the window. Plus, it pretty much hands the Best Actress - Drama prize to Globe darling Angelina Jolie (she's won every one of her past three nominations) for A Mighty Heart. So much for a balanced competition.

In other determinations, nine films (excluding Persepolis) are eligible for the second Globe award for Animated Feature, while 61 films (including Persepolis) are up for the Foreign Language prize.

Links via HFPA.org and LATimes.com.

On Location: The Christmas Story House

This post starts off an occasional feature spotlighting famous movie locations.

If A Christmas Story is your favorite Christmas movie too, then you and I will get along just fine. Which means Brian Jones and I would probably be BFFs, since he took his love of the droll comedy beyond an annual Christmas Eve viewing: he bought Ralphie's house. Not only that, he restored the three-story, wood-frame house in Cleveland to its appearance in the movie and opened it up for all to enjoy about a year ago.

Not only can fans take a tour of the actual house used during filming, but you can even visit the Higbee's Department Store ("I like Santa") and the Chinese restaurant ("fa-ra-ra-ra-ra"), where Peking duck is always on the menu. And of course, you can purchase your very own "major award" at the gift shop. And if you don't know what that is, then you sir, are no friend of mine.

Click here to buy A Christmas Storyon DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com, CBSNews.com, AChristmasStoryHouse.com and YouTube.com.

When Joker Met Roker

That Joker, he's such a tease. More and more tidbits about The Dark Knight are popping up here and there on the 'net, such as this latest shot of our boy Heath Ledger as the crown prince of crime (or is that grime?) himself. His greasy mug (complete with sadistic smirk) also graced the cover of the latest issue of Empire magazine.

And Warners continues their online onslaught with a couple of new viral websites for you hardcore Batman affcionados to dissect in search of the latest minutiae, including home pages for the fictional Gotham Times and District Attorney Harvey Dent (a.k.a. Two-Face), among others.

On the other hand, in the midst of all this cool fanboy bait comes this recent Today Show visit to the film's Chicago set, wherein a totally clueless Al Roker fumbles through interviews with Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart and Christopher Nolan. They even go so far as to dig up the old Batman TV theme and an unofficial shot of Ledger's Joker, and end the whole mess with Roker's trio of co-hostesses drooling over Bale (not that there's anything wrong with that, but ladies ... show some professionalism). It just goes to show how vacuous and pointless the network morning shows have become.

Links via MTV.com, EmpireOnline.com, TheGothamTimes.com, WeAreTheAnswer.org, Cinematical.com, YouTube.com and QuickStopEntertainment.com.

Keep the Promise

In honor of World's AIDS Day today, here are some of the best dramatic representations of fighting against and living with HIV/AIDS from film, television and the stage:

• An Early Frost: One of the first films to deal with the subject was not in theaters, but on television. This Emmy Award-winner starring Aidan Quinn is still powerful today.
• Parting Glances: Bill Sherwood's one and only film starred Steve Buscemi in an early, powerful performance as a man living with AIDS.
• Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt: The Academy Award-winning documentary from directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman focuses on the AIDS Memorial Quilt and its visit to Washington DC.
• Longtime Companion: Norman René and Craig Lucas' moving look at the early days of the crisis and its impact on a group of friends, including Oscar nominee Bruce Davison.
• The Living End: Searing, controversial, angry; all these words describe Gregg Araki's indie classic about two HIV+ men, in love and on the lamb.
• And the Band Played On: This Emmy Award-winning TV movie based on Randy Shilts' landmark book featured an all-star cast, including Ian McKellen and Lily Tomlin.
• Zero Patience: A time-bending musical about AIDS that fabricates a romance between Sir Richard Burton and the infamous "patient zero" shouldn't work, but it does.
• Angels in America: Another Emmy Award-winner with an impressive cast, this epic mini-series was based on the Tony Award-winning play by Tony Kushner.
• Rent: Based on Jonathan Larson's transformative musical (another Tony winner) about a group of young artists living "La Vie Bohème" in New York.

Links via WorldAIDSCampaign.info and Amazon.com.