Earl-Of-IMDb
War Child
By Gregory Ellwood
MSN Movies
One of the most surreal moments of the last year had to be waiting in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton hotel before the Golden Globes "press conference" and watching the assembled media treat the arrival of Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart like a superstar had just walked into the room. Because of NBC's arrogance and the threat of a Writers Guild picket, the Globes had turned into a fiasco where the circus around the event eclipsed coverage of the awards themselves. Standing next to me that evening, in a spot where a table filled with the cast of "Atonement" likely should have been, was Pete Hammond, award season columnist for The Los Angeles Times' TheEnvelope.com. Recently, we chatted about whether this year was truly going to go down as one of the strangest ever.
"Ya think? I think this is a crazy awards season," Hammond says with a good-natured laugh. "I've never seen anything like it. It's the uncertainty that has dogged this whole awards season. You just don't know if there is gonna be an awards show at any given moment."
You may know Hammond's name from his review quotes seen on many movie advertisements, but the longtime insider is also known around town as one of the best awards season experts out there. He'll never cop to it, but he was one of the first prognosticators (along with myself) to predict the Oscar nomination of "Crash" for Best Picture, and the only one who believed "Letters From Iwo Jima" was still in the race after a disappointing commercial launch. The man has contacts and he knows his stuff.
Hammond says that strange twists and turns occur every awards season, but that this year's horse race has been so wide open that Academy and guild members aren't voting in their usual, predictable patterns.
"With the strike it's become a whole different ballgame," Hammond says. "People are voting perhaps more on their sympathies for or against the strike. Movies like 'American Gangster' are hurt because they are coming from major studios. Some of the rank and file in the voting organizations are voting against those types of films for those reasons."
A prime example of how strange a year it's been (and continues to be with Sean Young's recent bizarre outburst at the Directors Guild Awards) is that the consensus best picture of the year, "No Country for Old Men," is actually expected to win Oscar's big prize. That rarely happens, so perhaps all this external drama has resulted in an unexpected benefit.
The bigger question, though: How has all this negative coverage affected the public's view? Hammond is unsure.
"Looking at the ratings at the People's Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, I think it's going to hurt them in the long run," Hammond says. "The Oscars are the real litmus test here. Do people realize they can live without them or do they really miss them?"
We'll find out if America is still interested on Feb. 24. I'm betting that if big stars like Angelina and Brad strut the red carpet, the answer will clearly be "yes."
MSN Movies
One of the most surreal moments of the last year had to be waiting in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton hotel before the Golden Globes "press conference" and watching the assembled media treat the arrival of Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart like a superstar had just walked into the room. Because of NBC's arrogance and the threat of a Writers Guild picket, the Globes had turned into a fiasco where the circus around the event eclipsed coverage of the awards themselves. Standing next to me that evening, in a spot where a table filled with the cast of "Atonement" likely should have been, was Pete Hammond, award season columnist for The Los Angeles Times' TheEnvelope.com. Recently, we chatted about whether this year was truly going to go down as one of the strangest ever.
"Ya think? I think this is a crazy awards season," Hammond says with a good-natured laugh. "I've never seen anything like it. It's the uncertainty that has dogged this whole awards season. You just don't know if there is gonna be an awards show at any given moment."
You may know Hammond's name from his review quotes seen on many movie advertisements, but the longtime insider is also known around town as one of the best awards season experts out there. He'll never cop to it, but he was one of the first prognosticators (along with myself) to predict the Oscar nomination of "Crash" for Best Picture, and the only one who believed "Letters From Iwo Jima" was still in the race after a disappointing commercial launch. The man has contacts and he knows his stuff.
Hammond says that strange twists and turns occur every awards season, but that this year's horse race has been so wide open that Academy and guild members aren't voting in their usual, predictable patterns.
"With the strike it's become a whole different ballgame," Hammond says. "People are voting perhaps more on their sympathies for or against the strike. Movies like 'American Gangster' are hurt because they are coming from major studios. Some of the rank and file in the voting organizations are voting against those types of films for those reasons."
A prime example of how strange a year it's been (and continues to be with Sean Young's recent bizarre outburst at the Directors Guild Awards) is that the consensus best picture of the year, "No Country for Old Men," is actually expected to win Oscar's big prize. That rarely happens, so perhaps all this external drama has resulted in an unexpected benefit.
The bigger question, though: How has all this negative coverage affected the public's view? Hammond is unsure.
"Looking at the ratings at the People's Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, I think it's going to hurt them in the long run," Hammond says. "The Oscars are the real litmus test here. Do people realize they can live without them or do they really miss them?"
We'll find out if America is still interested on Feb. 24. I'm betting that if big stars like Angelina and Brad strut the red carpet, the answer will clearly be "yes."
