Tag: Movies

And the Oscar Goes To…Who?

Why were these Academy Award winners and nominees so unlikely? Because they’d never done any acting before that one big role.

side_oscarJennifer Hudson

Hudson auditioned for the 2004 season of American Idol, having spent a few months as a singer in a stage show on a cruise ship. She ultimately finished the reality competition in seventh place, but in 2006 she was cast as Effie in the 2006 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Playing a founding member of a ‘60s girl group who’s later kicked out of the act, Hudson was cast for her ability to belt out the show’s signature song, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” It was the first professional acting of Hudson’s life, but the performance won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The World’s Most Expensive Movie Props

Movies cost a lot of money—
it’s expensive to build sets, pay actors, and occasionally, a single prop.

The purse

expensive movie propsThe films of Woody Allen earn critical acclaim, but they are usually modest commercial hits, with subsequently small production budgets. Allen’s latest, Blue Jasmine, is about a wealthy woman forced to live modestly after her husband is imprisoned for financial crimes. The one vestige of Jasmine’s (Cate Blanchett) formerly glamorous life is a tan purse.

Everyone Is Entitled To Their Opinion

Armond WhiteThe New York Film Critics Circle recently ousted member Armond White, a critic for the New York Press, an alternative weekly newspaper. Reason: at the guild’s awards ceremony, he heckled 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen, calling him an “embarrassing doorman and garbageman.” It’s just the latest, although loudest, moment in White’s career, which is dotted with inexplicably contrarian reviews. Here’s a look at the the times White hated movies everyone else loved, and loved movies everyone else hated.

And the Razzie Goes To…

The Academy Awards will be handed out to the year’s best films on March 2. Who cares? The night before, the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation gives out the Razzies—as in they “razz” the year’s worst films and film performances.

The Razzies• In the 1970s and early 1980s, Los Angeles publicist John Wilson hosted a potluck dinner for his friends every year on Oscar Night. At his 1981 party, after the Oscars were over, Wilson asked his friends to vote on the worst movie of the previous year—it had some standouts. Wilson was inspired to crown the worst movie after watching a double feature of two stinkers: the Village People musical Can’t Stop the Music, and the roller-disco-based, Olivia Newton-John musical Xanadu. The winner: Can’t Stop the Music. As Wilson was a publicist, he put out a press release to announce it. The news was picked up around Hollywood, and it soon became an annual tradition, except they’re now awarded in an L.A. theater, not Wilson’s living room.

Real Life Lightsabers?

Yes, it’s really happening.

Real life lightsabersIf you thought the lines were bad at your local Apple Store every time they roll out a new iPhone, just wait until they start selling lightsabers. Scientists recently declared that they have developed technology that could one day lead to the construction of the iconic weapon from the Stars Wars films.

5 More Headscratching Golden Globe Nominations

The 2014 Golden Globes have finally been awarded. Usually, they are a precursor to what films and performers will receive Oscar nominations. Other times, they’re completely out of left field. (Bonus: Take a look back at our list of headscratching Golden Globe TV nominations.)

Golden Globe Statue• While the Oscars may nominate up to 10 movies for Best Picture, the Golden Globes nominate five films for Best Picture, Drama, and Best Picture, Comedy or Musical. That categorization is sometimes confusing, because musicals aren’t always comedies. For example, in 2012, the tragic, incredibly serious Les Miserables won the Globe for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical. Also, Hollywood releases so few musicals these days that they’re almost assured a nomination in that category. In 2010, the critical and commercial bomb Burlesque, starring Cher and Christina Aguilera as singing strippers, earned a nomination. (It lost to the comedy-drama The Kids are All Right.)

Famous TV Sign-Offs

To mark the release of Anchorman 2, here is a look back at famous anchormen and their signature “sign-off.” You stay classy, BRI Fans.

hi-anchorman-ap-Sign Offs“Good night, and good luck.” Possibly the most famous sign-off in TV history, this phrase was coined by 1950s CBS News personality Edward R. Murrow (Person to Person, See It Now). He had gotten his start on CBS Radio during World War II, broadcasting from the rooftops of London buildings during the German blitz. With the line, Murrow was earnestly reaching out to the audience in an attempt to provide comfort. He kept the line after the war.

8 Quick Facts About “White Christmas”

Stuff you didn’t know about the most popular Christmas song of the 20th century.

Facts About White Christmas• Legendary songwriter Irving Berlin wrote the song from the point of view of a New Yorker (like himself) stuck in warm California for Christmas (as he had been). That sentiment was made explicitly clear by the song’s original first verse, which mentions “the sun is shining,” “the grass is green,” and things like palm trees and Beverly Hills.

• “White Christmas” was picked to be included in the 1942 Bing Crosby movie Holiday Inn—both Crosby and his producer thought that the song wouldn’t have much worth outside of the movie with that verse. So it was dropped.

Weird Celebrity Facts You’ve Probably Never Heard

Rupert-with-Mr-Whippy-rupert-grint-273116_1500_1029Rupert Grint. Grint played Ron Weasley, Harry Potter’s best friend, in eight Harry Potter movies. One of the first things he bought when he started earning movie-star money: a 1974 Mr. Whippy van—an ice cream truck. He’d wanted to be an ice cream man, before he discovered acting. “I keep my van well stocked. It’s got a proper machine that dispenses Mr. Whippy ice cream,” he told The Daily Mail. He’d have to have a license to sell ice cream, so instead, he drives around England and hands out free ice cream bars to kids.

5 Quick Facts About 5 Christmas Movies

You watch them every year…but do you know everything there is to know
about these classic holiday films?

Christmas moviesElf. Buddy the Elf says that elves “try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.” While portraying Buddy, Ferrell ate so much sugar—particularly in the scenes where Buddy eats huge plates of spaghetti covered in chocolate syrup and candy chunks—that he routinely suffered migraines throughout the filming of the movie.

3 Real-Life Replicas of Cartoon Houses

Ink-and-paint brick-and-mortar in the flesh and blood!

The Simpsons house (Henderson, Nevada)

In the mid-’90s, a group of video game designers at Fox Interactive teamed-up with an architect to construct a replica of the Simpsons’ home. The 2,200-square-foot house was completed in 1997 and it originally contained many features and decorations in order to make it look exactly like the one on The Simpsons—albeit in three dimensions. There was even a sailboat painting over the couch, and corncob curtains in the kitchen window, and some Duff Beers in the fridge.

real-life-simpsons-house-m

The house, placed in a quiet neighborhood in a suburb of Las Vegas, was later given away in a contest, but the winner opted for a $75,000 cash prize instead of the house. More than 30,000 people visited the house in 1997 (including Simpsons creator Matt Groening who signed one of the walls with purple paint), but neighbors weren’t too pleased with all the tourist traffic. The house was repainted and most of the details related to the show were removed before it was sold in 2001.

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