All the awards and nominations bestowed on Lee Daniels‘ movie, “Precious,” should shame the already shameful National Board of Review.

The NBR, a fan-based, fee-paying group, snubbed “Precious” this year. It was not named as the one of the group’s Best Films of the year. The only citation it received was a throwaway nod to Gabby Sidibe as Breakthrough Performer. The NBR was pretty much the only group in the world that didn’t give its Best Supporting Actress award to Mo’Nique.

The real and utter embarrassment for the NBR though comes with the Oscar awarded to Geoffrey Fletcher, who adapted Sapphire’s novel “Push.” Fletcher won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was ignored by the NBR after resigning from the group last year. His reasoning? He thought it would be a conflict of interest if he stayed. Of course, Fletcher was a fee paying member. Maybe the NBR didn’t like losing his $600 a year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ronald McDonald kills the Michelin Man in a short film that won an Oscar on Sunday night for Best Animated Short film.

“Logorama” played at Sundance, but it unlikely to be seen in many theaters. It possibly runs afoul of at least a thousand trademark violations by lampooning logos of well known companies from McDonalds to Michelin to Starbucks, Apple, Nickelodeon, and so on.

The film, made by Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain,won Best Short at the Stockholm Festival and the Kodak award at Cannes. But no one in America saw it until its Sundance screening and a few museum showings. Sacre bleu!

“Logorama” is a satire about branding, I guess. It’s animated, and propels Ronald and the Michelin Man, as well the kids from Haribo Candy, and the mustachoied Pringles man (voiced by director David Fincher of all people) and many other well known brand characters into a bizarre story that is literally chock full of logos and a little violence. You might think it’s a product plug, but this is the antithesis of that. You have to give the animators credit: they’ve found just about every logo they could think of, even Atlantic Records. Dunkin Donuts is in there, as well as Avis, MGM and Best Western. You can get a taste of it at http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/15/logorama-animated-ci.html.

“Logorama” is incredibly inventive. It reminded me of old cartoons from the 1950s that took regular swipes at topical subjects. Maybe the companies involved will have a sense of humor and let it go. The Oscar should help. We can only hope.

Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda finally met Kate Bosworth last night. And she proclaimed, “I want her to do the ‘Barbarella’ sequel!”

And that’s what Vanity Fair’s big Oscar party is always like: It’s like the whole industry is stuffed into one place. People meet and make deals or have romances.

Jane’s beau, famed record producer Richard Perry, fell into conversation with Jennifer Lopez.  Her whole recording career could be changed if Perry produces some tracks for her.

Read the rest of this entry »

While we’re at the Oscars, Vanity Fair throws one of the three swanky private dinners in town. (The other two are Elton John’s, and Dani Janssen’s). Here’s the Vanity Fair list, by table:

Read the rest of this entry »

The omission of Farrah Fawcett from the In Memoriam segment of last night’s Oscars was terrible.

But Farrah was in good company.

They forgot three-time Oscar winning composer Maurice Jarre. Among his Oscar nominated scores: “Ghost.” Guess who starred in “Ghost”? Demi Moore, who introduced the In Memoriam segment. And Patrick Swayze, the first face in the segment. Hello! Come on: This isn’t exactly rocket science.

Read the rest of this entry »

Meryl Streep came out of the Kodak Theatre and whispered two words in my ear.

“That bitch!” she said with a laugh, then added: “I love her!”

OK, this was Meryl’s umpteenth loss in a row. She hasn’t won an Oscar since “Sophie’s Choice.” You do realize she was just here last year for “Doubt.” Her most recent run of performances has been staggering, from “The Manchurian Candidate” remake to “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Adaptation,” even the little seen “Rendition.”

She’ll be back, maybe not next year, but in 2012. She makes the entire Oscar process worth it for the rest of us…

Read the rest of this entry »

George Clooney brought his girlfriend and his best friend to the Academy Awards. The best friend was silver and monogrammed. It was a flask.

“Hey, pay attention,” he said as he flashed me the flask.

“You can’t drink during the Oscars!” I said, naively horrified.

“Oh yeah?”

Read the rest of this entry »

Mo’Nique may have been the first Oscar nominee to bring a bodyguard to the Oscars. He walked her and husband Sidney Hicks up the red carpet. What, exactly, was she afraid of?

“It’s the safest place in the world,” joked an Academy publicist, who shook his head in disbelief.

Yes, Mo’Nique is in a world of her own. She wasn’t seen at the Elton John party or at Vanity Fair.

When someone asked who designed her royal blue dress, the question was referred to the bodyguard. He didn’t know, which was not a surprise. A conference occurred on the red carpet. No definitive answer returned.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every Academy Award success story carries with it a tale of someone who’s been forgotten.

So let’s say I was a little astonished to find actor Quinton Aaron waiting for a car outside the Kodak Theatre after the Oscar show was over.

Who is Quinton Aaron? Well, while Sandra Bullock was accepting kudos for her Oscar for “The Blind Side,” someone obviously forgot that Quinton played real-life football player Michael Oher. Which is a little shocking: There would have been no “Blind Side” without him.

Aaron told me he received only one ticket to the Oscars — no date, no escort — and no ticket to the Governors Ball.

“I did get two tickets to the Vanity Fair party,” he said, “so I’m waiting for my date to come pick me up.”

Read the rest of this entry »

You’d think with 10 best picture nominees, you’d see somebody from one of the films on the first night of real Oscar partying.

But the lone nominee who made an appearance was “Precious” director Lee Daniels, at the Artists for Peace and Justice cocktail party thrown by Vanity Fair at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Daniels was the only nominee but not the only celeb, as director Paul Haggis, so involved with Haiti even before the earthquake, has rallied more and more bold-faced names to the cause. Among those crammed into the BHH’s bar were Gerard Butler, Maria Bello (a steadfast supporter), Ben Stiller, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt,  Nia Vardalos and Ian Gomez, Matthew Bomer, Kristen Bell, and Paula Wagner and Rick Nicita. That’s what they call a nice crowd in Hollywood.

Read the rest of this entry »