Everyone is calling this year's election the most important vote in decades. And we kind of have to agree with this "Everyone." But not for the reasons you would think, like providing health care, saving retirement accounts, battling global warming, and making either Delaware or Alaska relevant. But because in the media industry, it's creating a lot of firsts!
Yes, the faltering economy and collapsing ad market helped push MTV toward its decision to accept political advertisements for the first time in its history, but also this election is just too important to let media ethics get in the way of reaching young voters.
Also, while Esquire magazine has, in its entire 75-year history, never endorsed a candidate before, now they will! Not because they need to see some hot newsstand sales from a Barack Obama cover (oh, you thought they'd endorse McCain?), but because this election is just too important to allow readers to go without knowing whom the Esquire masthead wants to see in the White House.
And: CONTINUED »
There hasn't exactly been a whole lot of Oscar buzz surrounding Spike Lee's new World War II film, The Miracle at St. Anna, but if there is and he doesn't get one, he'll know why. Lesson for those who want an Academy Award: don't mess with Clint Eastwood… or, better yet, move to Los Angeles.
LA Times writer Eric P. Lucas has had enough of the Heath Ledger hype and wrote a strongly-worded article to argue otherwise. Except instead of convincing everyone that the Oscar buzz is unnecessary, he makes the fatal mistake of insulting Heath and sending his diehard fans into an angry frenzy.
Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Laura Linney, and Ellen Page all lost out on this year's Best Actress Oscar, so they and their publicists jump to the top of the list of suspects for reminding the media of a certain year-old statement from the night's winner, Marion Cotillard, about 9/11.
"I think we're lied to about a number of things", Cotillard told French program Paris Dernière last February. "On the Internet you see all these films about a 9/11 conspiracy theory. It’s fascinating, addictive even. [...] We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned? There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed. [...] They were finished, I think, by 1973, and to re-cable all that, to bring up-to-date all the technology and everything, it was a lot more expensive, that work, than destroying them."
Now, golden statue in hand, she's backtracking. "Marion never intended to contest nor question the attacks of September 11, 2001, and regrets the way old remarks have been taken out of context," insists her attorney Vincent Tolesano. She also regrets how the comments may impact her earning potential.
For better or worse, celebrities like Christine Ebersole do not. CONTINUED »
PARTY FOUL Vanity Fair, which canceled its famed Oscar party out of respect for the writers or some crap, might have had it coming: Websites reporting on the Oscars saw huge spikes in visitor traffic, but VanityFair.com saw a 25 percent dip. [WWD]
Making fun of Barack Obama's name is not funny! (Even unintentionally.) So not funny, mixing up Obama with "Osama" is off limits even for Jon Stewart. That's how Keith Olbermann feels about the Comedy Central host's Oscar monologue, which the Counterdowner claims was a page pulled from Ann Coulter's comedic playbook.
Except that it wasn't. Much like Saturday Night Live's opening skit, Stewart's script was a nudge-nudge at the media, who are too busy playing a game of inside baseball to notice.
Olbermann's rant follows. CONTINUED »
SHOMOSCARS "The 80th anniversary edition of the Academy Awards, dominated by European stars and films that played poorly at the box office, averaged 32 million viewers, entering the record books on Monday as the least watched Oscar telecast ever." [Reuters]
• Improv Everywhere takes on Starbucks with a desk top computer rocking Windows 95.
• Brad Renfro got snubbed at the “In Memoriam” montage because he wasn't famous enough for three seconds of screen time of a four hour program.
• Hey, there just might be something to this whole blogging trend. CONTINUED »
ABC, and its advertisers, were expecting this year's Oscars to follow the trends of years past, with ratings increasing. How else could they rationalize charging marketers $120,000 more per 30-second spot?
Well, they did charge them more: $1.82 million per ad. Except this year, ratings slid the other way. Way the other way.
Not only is Nielsen estimating (hah!) 21 percent fewer viewers this year, but the broadcast, with 14 percent fewer than 2003's worst-watched broadcast ever (33 million), is suddenly the new least-watched Oscars ever.
Looking at early data, Nielsen figures the show will earn a 21.9 rating and 33 share; final tallies will be known once more reports are in. Interestingly, ABC anticipated this, and told advertisers they should expect lower numbers.
Naturally, the pundits are going to weigh in and tell you exactly why the Oscars had fewer people tuning in.
Was it the writers strike that turned them off? Were they wasting too much time on Facebook? Do they realize they can just find out which nominee actually wins in real time online, and then visit YouTube for any worthwhile acceptance speeches or bloopers?
Or maybe it had to do with none of the worthwhile awards being revealed until after our bedtime.
• The worst dressed awards are more fun than the actual Oscars.
• Brooke Hogan deals with her parents' divorce by doing calisthenics in a bikini.
• Britney Spears goes to dinner to earn another paycheck from the paparazzi.
• Note to Tom Cruise: Katie Holmes needs a new script.
• Stars are just like us: they love free crao.
• Angelina Jolie rocking a serious lady bump.
Who says Tinseltown is full of gays? Not ABC, which opted to omit from their official transcript No Country For Old Men producer Scott Rudin thanking boyfriend John Barlow, the theatre publicist, in his acceptance speech. [Queerty]
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emulate \EM-yuh-layt\ verb 1 a : to strive to equal or excel b : imitate; 2 : to equal or approach equality with
Cameron Diaz emulated the hair style of the drunk girl at the frat party for the Academy Awards.
[Photos]
Barbara Walters' mostly uninteresting Oscar special last night – oooh! Juno's Ellen Page doesn't believe she deserves an Oscar, and neither did the Academy! – did get us riled up for a brief moment. It happened during the show's opening, where Walters introduced the people she'd be talking to while drifting around the airy home that may or may not belong to her.
And when you least expect you, you got to see more leg than Katie Couric ever offered.
Between Jon Stewart's playing with an iPhone and Steve Jobs getting thanked during an acceptance speech, we counted at least two free Apple plugs during last night's Oscars.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. What an exciting night. These past 3 and a half months have been very tough. The town was torn apart by a bitter writer’s strike but I’m happy to say that the fight is over, so tonight welcome to the make-up sex. Of course there is still obviously some collateral damage left over from the strike. Emotionally. Economically. Perhaps worst of all the canceling of the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar party. They said they did it out of quote respect for the writers and oh, you know another way they could show respect for the writers? Maybe one day invite some of them to the Vanity Fair Oscar party. They would enjoy it. Don’t worry, they won’t mingle, don’t worry.
They actually say that having the Oscars helped to end the strike. That the idea that getting the town back to work and having an Oscars was one of the impetus to get things done. Which I think is wonderful. So if we could, before spending the next 4 to 5 hours giving each other golden statues, let’s take a moment to congratulate ourselves.
-Jon Stewart, in his opening monologue for the Oscars last night.
[Photo]
To us, the Oscars are just one long tease. We prefer seeing who won the next day and judging what everyone wore in Us Weekly. But if you like meaningless awards and famous people in black tie, there’s no bigger evening.
And after the Super Bowl, there’s no bigger night for advertisers. They’re so glad that the writers resolved their issues so they can tell you about their safety features of their hybrid car:
The settlement of the writers’ strike means the show will proceed as usual — stars, red-carpet fashions and all. That alleviated the fears of more than a dozen blue-chip advertisers, worried that their elaborate — and expensive — marketing plans centered on the Oscars would be disrupted.
“We’re very, very happy the show’s back” to normal, said Aldo Papone, vice president for global advertising at the American Express Company in New York, an Oscar sponsor since 1996.
Surely, the writers are also very, very happy that their small web residuals enabled credit card companies to encourage more debt spending in this country.
CONGRATULATIONS FOR DOING TERRIBLY The five films nominated for Best Picture Oscars grossed a collective $295 million domestically and grabbed only 3 percent of all receipts, making this year's crop the second-worst performing group of top nods in 20 years. [THR]
The Oscars broadcast, on Feb. 24, is expected to be an advertising boon for ABC. The network, which has the broadcast contract through until at least 2014, is said to be snagging $1.82 million for every 30-second spot. American Express, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Mars/Masterfoods, MasterCard, McDonald's, JCPenney, L'Oreal, and Dove Cream Oil have all signed on for the privilege.
But with the price of a half-minute spot up 7 percent from last year, Madison Avenue would like to know: Are these rates being … inflated? CONTINUED »
Every day the WGA and the producers are like, “No, we’re getting close. Keep watching TV. We’ll have new programming soon.” And every day nothing happens, except American Idol is more inexplicably popular than ever.
And with the Academy Awards only a few weeks away, things need to get settled if People wants to run its standard 40 pages of Oscar Glamour spread. Writers are threatening to picket, and you know actors. They’ll do coke in public, but crossing a picket line will ruin their reputation.
But now it doesn’t matter if the Oscars go on, because its raison d'être has been abandoned. In sympathy with the striking writers, Vanity Fair has canceled its party.
“There will be something sort of liberating about ordering Chinese food and watching the Oscars in bed,” Graydon Carter said.
Well put. Now stars really will be like us. Except we prefer pizza.
First they were closer. Then they were further. Now they’re closer again.
The WGA and the producers had “a good day” on Friday, which means … well, who the fuck knows? It seems like everyone involved in reaching this agreement is a writer on Lost because every time they approach a resolution, someone runs their mouth and we’re right back where we started.
Of course, with the writers strike, people complain that there’s nothing on their DVR. But just a few months ago, everyone was complaining that there was too much on their DVR. It’s such a tough life for the premium cable inclined.
Anyway, if the strike is resolved that means the Oscars. Other than the fashion round-ups, the Oscars are pretty inane. So instead of the awards, how about this:
Congratulations everyone who works in Hollywood. You're great. If your parents don't respect you, they really should. You're creating fine art. Well done.
Editorial Director
