It's the soda, stupid!!

Finally the war is on to reduce the consumption of sugary drinks among the general population:

In reports to be published in science journals this week, two groups of researchers hope to add evidence to the theory that soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks don't just go hand-in-hand with obesity, but actually cause it. Not that these drinks are the only cause -- genetics, exercise and other factors are involved -- but that they are one cause, perhaps the leading cause.
...
Biologically, the calories from sugar-sweetened beverages are fundamentally different in the body than those from food.

The main sweetener in soda -- high-fructose corn syrup -- can increase fats in the blood called triglycerides, which raises the risk of heart problems, diabetes and other health woes.

This sweetener also doesn't spur production of insulin to make the body "process" calories, nor does it spur leptin, a substance that tamps down appetite, as other carbohydrates do, explained Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"There's a lack of fullness or satiety. The brain just seems to add it on," said Dr. Louis Aronne, a Weill-Cornell Medical College doctor who is president of the Obesity Society.
...
"Caloric imbalance causes obesity, so in the sense that any one part of the diet is contributing excess calories, it's contributing causally to the obesity," Thun said. "It doesn't mean that something is the only cause. It means that in the absence of that factor there would be less of that condition."

Sodas contain a huge amount of sugar (over 10 TABLESPOONS in each can), and the diet ones use sugar substitutes produced in chemical labs that someday might be deemed carcinogenic (why else would the ingredient keep changing? When they find a problem with one, they switch to another, until another problem arises). Don't believe me? Check out Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, then get back to me.

It's about time this issue starts getting treated seriously by the medical community and the government.

Is Saudi Arabia the next nuclear power?

Well, well, well, this is going to be interesting. Apparently the Saudis have financed Pakistan's nuclear ambitions, and in the process have acquired a good deal of information (or more) on how to get nuclear weapons themselves:

Saudi Arabia is working secretly on a nuclear programme, with help from Pakistani experts, the German magazine Cicero reports in its latest edition, citing western security sources. ... According to western security services, the magazine added, Saudi scientists have been working since the mid-1990s in Pakistan, a nuclear power since 1998 thanks to the work of the now-disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. ... Saudi bar codes can be found on half of Pakistan's nuclear weapons "because it is Saudi Arabia which ultimately co-financed the Pakistani atomic nuclear programme". The magazine also said satellite images prove that Saudi Arabia has set up in al-Sulaiyil, South of Riyadh, a secret underground city and dozens of underground silos for missiles. According to some western security services, long-range Ghauri-type missiles of Pakistani-origin are housed inside the silos.

It's going to be interesting to see what arguments Bush brings forth to defend his family's closest allies in the Arab world. I think we're going to see a lot of squirming from dear ol' George...

Red Eye

I watched this movie a couple weeks ago with Ray. What can I say? It's not horrific, but it's certainly not memorable either. The best thing about it is probably Cillian Murphy, a good actor I first saw in 28 Days Later..., and who is great at being a baddie, probably thanks to his cunning good looks and sweet eyes, which throw you off at first.

Most of the action takes place on an airplane, and, although I had a few doubts director Wes Craven could make it work, it actually does. Unfortunately, the last third of the movie spirals progressively downward, and the end is more than predictable.

It was interesting to see that the actor impersonating the lead Secret Service agent was none other than CBS's Survivor2 runner-up Colby Donaldson. Now, that's a dreamy guy...

Get a haircut!!

This guy's name doesn't really mean anything to me, but I just read this:

Record mogul Phil Spector is now being sued for millions by a personal assistant claiming he sexually harassed her.

And looking at his picture... all I could think was, "Ewww, gross!"

March 30, 1996

It was a Saturday like any other. I went to work at the same restaurant that night and then I had plans to go dancing at this brand new disco they had just opened in Turin, "El Diablo." I wanted to check it out since I wasn't crazy about the other disco I used to go to on Saturdays.

The disco was nice, but the night was slow and the turnout all but conspicuous. My friends had decided to leave, but I wanted to stick around a little longer. I'm glad I did.

The stars must have all been aligned just right, because that was the night that I met Ray, the love of my life, and today we celebrate our 10th anniversary.

It's been a wonderful decade. I love him tremendously and I'm very happy we're still together. We've had our disagreements (and a few arguments too...) but all and all I'd say we're a very good match.

He's my knight in a shiny armor, no doubt about that.

I love you Ray.

I'm looking forward to the next decade by your side.

What does a total eclipse look like?

I guess I won't find out today, unlike the lucky thousands across the world who were in the eclipse's path, from Brazil, through Africa, to Asia. Here are some of the best pictures:

Anti-gay legislation backfires

Check out what happens when people blindly trust and follow the bigots who dominate the religious right movement in America. From Yahoo!News:

An Ohio state appellate court has ruled that the state's 2004 marriage amendment effectively prevents the state from prosecuting domestic violence between unwed couples.

In a decision released Friday, a divided three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio's strict constitutional limitations on marriage mean that its domestic violence statutes may not be enforced against a "person living as a spouse."

The majority wrote that the legal status of "person living as a spouse" is unconstitutional in light of the amendment's ban on recognizing a relationship that "intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage."

And the damage is not limited to Ohio:

While Ohio's amendment has clashed with the wording of the domestic violence law, other state marriage amendments have called into question the ability of public employers to offer domestic partner benefits. Domestic partner-related lawsuits are under way in Michigan, Utah and Ohio.

See, that's what happens when people are deceived by religious zealots who want to establish a theocracy and live "by the Bible" in 21^st century America.

Someday, a domestic violence incident will turn ugly and someone will die. And all because the police couldn't stop the attacker.

But at least gays can't marry. Whew! We're safe now.

Reason #682 why the Catholic Churc is Evil

Ray pointed me to this 365Gay.com article about a Catholic cemetery in Rhode Island that is refusing to write the words “husband”, “spouse” or “beloved” on the crypt of the recently deceased member of the couple, legally married in Massachusetts.

It’s sickening. The Catholic Church is sickening. They preach love but are full of hate and not even in death can they respect the love of a person for another.

I don’t agree, but I could understand their opposition to the word “husband” or even “spouse”, but “beloved”?! BELOVED!!

How many times is that same word written on tombstones all across the country? Hundreds of thousands. It just indicates to the occasional passerby that that person was loved by someone when alive. Is it so bad and wrong? Does it make a difference if the person was loved by a man or a woman? Furthermore, who would even know? It’s not like the surviving husband was going to sign it.

The Catholic Church is a horrific institution. I know they also do a lot of good for the poor and the needy, but so many of their resources are wasted, WASTED on hurting and belittling so many other people, that in the end it really stains all the good work they do.

This is what the surviving husband had to say, with how much pain, I can only imagine:

"I just want this to be recognized," Paolino told WJAR in Providence. "In two or three hundred years when that name is there, I want someone to know that this person loved this person."
…
"I said to them, I'm not asking them to recognize gay marriage," Paolino told WJAR. "I'm only asking you to recognize the fact that I loved this person."

When it's the male who feels trapped

I read this article on CNN and it dealt with a topic I often thought about: I believe women should unequivocally have a right to get an abortion in case of an unintended pregnancy, if they so desire, but what about their male counterparts? What rights do they have?

See, I don’t think a woman should be forced to keep the baby if she doesn’t want it, but why then should a man be forced to be responsible (at least economically) for a baby he didn’t want? And don’t give me the “well, he had fun, now he has to pay the price” argument, since she had fun too. They both did and now he’s stuck with her decision. Period.

We all make mistakes and unwanted pregnancies do happen all the time. The woman (for now at least), can choose if she wants to keep the baby or not. She can actually withhold the information from the guy altogether and get the abortion without him ever even knowing she got pregnant. It’s her prerogative. It’s her choice.

However, if she unilaterally decides to keep the baby, regardless of what he would like to do, he’s stuck with her decision for good. He’ll have to financially support the baby and can’t have any saying in the whole matter.

Being gay, I know I’ll never be personally faced with such a situation, but my kids one day might. My daughter will have the possibility to decide whether to keep the baby (and demand the father pay child support), but my son won’t. If he impregnates a girl and she decides to keep the baby even if he doesn’t want to, he’s still stuck with the bill. Is that right?

The article talks about the case of a guy whose girlfriend “knew he didn't want to have a child with her and assured him repeatedly that – because of a physical condition -- she could not get pregnant”, but who ended up pregnant and forced him to pay for child support in the amount of $500 a month. That’s not peanuts to me. And it’s unfair to the guy.

With the help of the National Center for Men he’s suing to address “the issue of male reproductive rights, contending that lack of such rights violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause”:

The gist of the argument: If a pregnant woman can choose among abortion, adoption or raising a child, a man involved in an unintended pregnancy should have the choice of declining the financial responsibilities of fatherhood. The activists involved hope to spark discussion even if they lose.

And given the complicated issue, raising public awareness about it is pretty much all they can hope, since courts have pretty much always ordered the father to pay child support, whether fair or not, because, rightly so, they look out for the best interest of the child, not the parents. Neither of them.

Naturally, the other side has its own argument against this, saying:

"Roe is based on an extreme intrusion by the government -- literally to force a woman to continue a pregnancy she doesn't want," Brown said. "There's nothing equivalent for men. They have the same ability as women to use contraception, to get sterilized."

A solid argument no question about it. And it goes without saying that if the government shouldn’t have the power to force a woman to deliver a baby she doesn’t want, a guy shouldn’t have the power to force her to have an abortion if she doesn’t want to.

The solution proposed by the guy in the article is giving the baby up for adoption if the father doesn’t want it. And if the mother isn’t ok with that, than it’s her choice and it should be her duty only to support the kid.

It’s a tough issue and talking about it is a start. Read the article, it’s very interesting.

I'm still bitter, and with good reason

Quite a bit of time has passed since this year's Academy Awards ceremony, and I still feel like we were robbed. I still feel like Brokeback Mountain should have won the Best Picture Oscar instead of Crash, and after reading quite a few articles about it, I now know I'm not the only one and I have very good reasons to feel bitter and bruised.

These are excerpts from the articles I've read. From the Los Angeles Times' The Envelope's "Breaking No Ground":

[...]
You could not take the pulse of the industry without realizing that this film made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable.
...
More than any other of the nominated films, "Brokeback Mountain" was the one people told me they really didn't feel like seeing, didn't really get, didn't understand the fuss over.
...
It may be true, as producer Cathy Schulman said in accepting the Oscar for best picture, that this was "one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American history," but "Crash" is not an example of that.
...
The reality of this film, the reason it won the best picture Oscar, is that it is, at its core, a standard Hollywood movie, as manipulative and unrealistic as the day is long.
...
So for people who were discomfited by "Brokeback Mountain" but wanted to be able to look themselves in the mirror and feel like they were good, productive liberals, "Crash" provided the perfect safe harbor. They could vote for it in good conscience, vote for it and feel they had made a progressive move, vote for it and not feel that there was any stain on their liberal credentials for shunning what "Brokeback" had to offer. And that's exactly what they did.

From Boston.com News' "Hollywood isn't being straight with gay community":

The crash you heard late Sunday night was not only Jack Nicholson announcing the best-picture Oscar winner. It was the sound of lots of closet doors slamming shut in a huff.
...
Some movies are born political, and others have politics thrust upon them. Poor ''Brokeback Mountain" was such a movie. Ang Lee's adaptation of Annie Proulx's short story was not out to attack us with a statement. It really is just an unhappy love story that happens to have enormous social relevance because its protagonists are two men.
...
the average age of voters is rumored to be 60-something, which means that ''Crash" might have triggered a civil-rights hot flash in the Academy.
...
Oddly, the characters doing all the colliding in ''Crash" are straight. Director and co-writer Paul Haggis was sure to populate his movie Noah's Ark-style, with two or three members of various races, ethnicities, and social classes represented. Homosexuals didn't make the cut.

Thus the win for ''Crash" makes an interesting point about where Hollywood stands on the whole gay issue -- less ''I wish I knew how to quit you" and more ''not that there's anything wrong with that."
...
In an attempt to ''normalize" ''Brokeback Mountain" during Sunday night's broadcast Stewart trotted out a montage of great homoerotic moments in Westerns. It put the movie in an irreverent cinematic context, and it was very funny until you realized that, because the men in the montage aren't truly gay, all that clip reel actually does is reinforce paranoia about what seems gay. Just like the ''Brokeback" parodies sprouting all over the Internet, it was a backhanded compliment -- progressive, yet misleading, true but false, distancing and distorted.

In the very same way that straight Stewart happily woke up in bed with straight Clooney during one of Sunday night's skits, it was more insidiously coy illusion. Smirking and winking pussyfoots around the issue. Waking up beside Harvey Fierstein and loving it -- that's pushing the envelope.

From The Raw Story's "Oscar the chicken":

[...]
But historically, the Oscars have always been about politics. The Academy does not always award the best of the best, preferring instead to play favorites. Box office hits like Titanic have always been Academy winners, and oftentimes Best Actor and Best Actress go to performances that were decent but not spectacular. Denzel Washington, snubbed for his role in Malcolm X, was awarded his gold statue for the mediocre Training Day.
...
The Academy, in all its grandeur, chickened out. They opted for a message movie, the trite and convenient Crash.
...
But when we think about art, and about what it takes to create art and to make it watchable and loveable, Crash is precisely the kind of movie that lies outside the boundary of what nuanced art is supposed to do. In writing classes, instructors offer the following advice: Less is More. Driving home a point through overwriting only makes things obvious and ineffective. What works is careful character development and emotional discovery. Cinematography. The Still Shot.

The love that unraveled in Brokeback Mountain had just as much to do with the frames locked on Wyoming's untouched land as they did with the two men dominating most scenes. But in Crash, everything that should have been clear through action was said aloud. Stereotypes were voiced through characters who were so one-dimensional they would barely stand a chance in the real world. It is worth noting, then, that Americans were ready for Brokeback Mountain, even though the Academy was not. Call it disappointing, or call it politics, but the Academy was ready to send a message about intolerance -- we are political, they want us to believe -- but they were not ready to send a message about the ubiquitousness of love.

From Entertainment Weekly:

[...]
After trailing Brokeback Mountain in the awards race for the past three months, Crash surprised not only Nicholson but most of the Kodak Theater audience members.
...
In the weeks leading up to the Oscars, Brokeback had won the top prizes from the Producers Guild, British Academy, and Golden Globes, while Crash's arsenal contained a Screen Actors Guild ensemble prize and, well, not much else, other than mixed reviews. In 18 out of the previous 22 years, the Oscar went to a film that won a Golden Globe for Best Picture; Crash wasn't even nominated.
...
Did Brokeback peak too early? Are there so many awards shows these days that Academy members just wanted something else to win for once? Did Crash particularly resonate with Oscar voters, the majority of whom live or work in Los Angeles? One hypothesis suggested that much of the Academy's older constituency was turned off by Brokeback's same-sex love story. As the film's Oscar-winning co-screenwriter Larry McMurtry said backstage after Best Picture was announced, "Perhaps the truth really is: Americans don't want cowboys to be gay." Indeed, asked at Hollywood's old guard "Night of 100 Starts" party what he thought of Brokeback Mountain, Ernest Borgnine, who won Best Actor 50 years ago for Marty, responded, "I didn't see it and I don't care to see it. I know they say it's a good picture but I don't care to see it. If John Wayne were alive, he'd be rolling in his grave."

So there you have it. Consciously or not, Mr. Borgnine summed up the feelings (and fears) of old-Hollywood, and gave us the real reason why Brokeback didn't win: BIGOTRY. He said it himself, he didn't see the movie, and although they told him it was a "good picture" he didn't want to see it because... it portrayed cowboys as gays, apparently a big no-no. He had to vote for the BEST picture of the year (a duty I would take quite seriously) and really only had to watch five movies to make up his mind, but he, like many others probably, didn't even bother watching the one that had won EVERYTHING up to that point not because he couldn't find the time or it wasn't playing anywhere near him, but because he didn't like the idea that the epitome of macho-man, the cowboy, could be gay too (and what's with his John Wayne line? If he were alive, why would he be rolling in his grave?!)

So it's final, the movie that was the front runner, that won every major award out there, that was the best and the most honest and basically deserved the big prize, lost possibly because it dealt with homosexuality but certainly because it showed the wrong type of guy as gay. Who knows, if Jack and Ennis had been working on Wall Street or as waiters in Miami, maybe, just maybe Brokeback Whatever might have won.

Furthermore, Crash didn't deserve to win (in the biggest Oscar upset since Shakespeare in Love trumped Saving Private Ryan in 1999) because although it dealt with important issues, its message was fluffy, a façade, while Brokeback Mountain's was real, in your face but not in a rude way. Brokeback said what it had to say without much fanfare and it offered us real people, living real emotions. Crash only hinted at what it wanted to say, and his character development was seriously lacking, not in small part due to the large ensemble.

The tactic? A too familiar one at this point. I read that Lionsgate, Crash's distributor, played into the audience's sentiment by running heart-tugging ads in trade papers asking Academy members to "remember how it made you feel." Nothing wrong so far, but what's worrisome is this:

The film makers believe this tactic, along with the 130,000 DVDs they mailed to guild members, helped set the film apart. And if the barnstorming $4 million campaign evokes memories of Miramax in its Weinstein-led heyday, that could be because Lionsgate relied on the input of some key Miramax vets. "[Just being] good is not, at the moment, enough," producer Cathy Schulman says of Crash's triumph. "It was about word of mouth and how you sustain yourself. And that required being distinguishable."

It sounds like political campaigns, where the candidate with the most money usually ends up winning.

And the saddest thing is that I actually really liked Crash. It was my second choice (although I have reconsidered that too now) among the five, albeit a long distant runner up. And now that it has stolen Brokeback's crown, I'm saddened by how much the memory of the movie has been soiled.

This is what Brokeback's co-writer and producer Diana Ossana had to say about her movie's loss:

"It was bittersweet, but honestly, the film will always be there. That movie will find its way for months and years to come."

That's certainly true and, ultimately, probably the best outcome. Crash did get the all important little statue named Oscar, but its legacy will always be that it took it from Brokeback, the movie that really deserved it, the movie that got robbed because Hollywood was too much of a bigot to recognized it as the best among all.

See, Shakespeare In Love is indeed remembered as the movie that upset Saving Private Ryan's supposed front runner status, but Ryan was mostly expected to win because it was Steven Spielberg's follow up to his Oscar winning Schindler's List, while Shakespeare had as much, if not more, artistic credentials as Ryan. And a better marketing campaign.

In the end, Brokeback got to be talked about even more than if it had actually won. If it had won, as everyone expected, it would have been noted and soon forgotten. This way, while all the talk about Crash centered on its sudden upset status and not much else, Brokeback was actually getting lauded as the "real" winner, even without the golden statue. Crash was a spoiler and everybody knows it.

A few interesting facts:

• Crash's three total wins mark the fewest victories for a Best Picture since Rocky also won three in 1977.
• Ang Lee became the first nonwhite filmmaker to win the Best Director Oscar.
• Crash's victory made Oscar history, marking the first time a film-festival acquisition (it premiered at Toronto in 2004) won Best Picture.
• Crash's director, Paul Haggis, who also wrote Million Dollar Baby, became the first person to write back-to-back Best Picture winners.
• For only the third time ever, the top six prizes went to six different movies.
• Charlize Theron was erroneously referred to as South African-American. She lives in the US, but isn't a citizen.
• The 16 prerecorded "underscores" playing during the acceptance speeches, were producer's Gil Cates' idea. Musical director Bill Conti said, "As long as I don't do it live, because it'll spook [the winners]... they'll think I'm playing them off!" No one in the audience heard the music; it was only on TV.
• Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep weren't ad-libbing. Longtime Tomlin collaborator Jane Wagner wrote the speech, and the actresses worked together to nail the Altmanesque flair, including overlapping dialogue.
• 3 of the 6 Best Supporting Actress winners since 2000 were pregnant.
• 1947: the last year in which the most Oscars won by any film was just three.
• 1961: the last year in which all four acting winners took home a trophy for their first acting nod.
• $53,404,817: theatrical gross of Crash, the lowest Best Picture total since 1987's The Last Emperor made $43,984,230.
• $51,470,821: theatrical gross of 2003 Best Picture winner The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King... in its first two days.

And if you care to read what Brokeback's original writer, Annie Proulx, had to say about her original creation's loss, go here. She might sound like a sore loser, but the way I see it, she said what she felt and nothing more. Why should she have kept quiet? I didn't.

So disappointed

The 78^th Academy Awards ceremony ended up being much better than I thought, except for the final surprise that I feared, up until a few days ago, but didn't expect it would actually materialize. When Jack Nicholson read "and the Oscar goes to..." I was so sure he was going to say Brokeback Mountain I thought I heard wrong or that he had made one of his jokes. But no. I had heard right. He wasn't joking. Crash ended up with the night's biggest award.

What can I say besides that I was (and still am) deeply disappointed? Crash was a good movie, but certainly not the best of the year, especially when compared to a movie like Brokeback Mountain that was able to achieve so much with so little, in terms of the concept (an 11 page magazine story), no marquee name stars (as opposed to the humongous cast of Crash) and a story much more politically and socially charged (homosexuality between the roughest men on earth).

What went wrong? Who knows. We heard so many theories, but the most likely answer is that the Academy members, deep down, didn't feel comfortable enough awarding a movie that "normalized" being gay by striking one of Hollywood's core mythological figures: the cowboy.

Bottom line, where Hollywood could have made a courageous statement, it decided instead to take the easy way out, awarding the only movie, among the nominees, who could be considered the safe choice.

My prediction? Crash is a movie that will be completely forgotten within 6 months top. Brokeback Mountain would have held a place in Hollywood's history forever. What a pity. What a waste.

For gays, the ceremony wasn't a complete loss obviously. First there is the huge list of nominations raked up by Brokeback Mountain, Capote, and Transamerica, all movies dealing with homosexuality and all critically acclaimed. And then there were the three wins for Brokeback Mountain and the one for Capote, all in important categories.

As for the winners, there were really only 3 surprises for me. One, the biggest and worst, I've already talked about. The other two were the Best Original Score and the Best Original Song. I thought for sure that John Williams would have won for Memoirs of a Geisha, but since he had two nominations (!!) he probably ended up splitting his own votes, thereby allowing Brokeback Mountain's achingly sweet and mellow music by Gustavo Santaolalla to rise to victory. Even though we could also, in hindsight, point out that this award might have been intended as the sugar coating for the bitter pill to swallow at the end of the night...

As for the original song, talk of a surprise win! The list was shortened to 3 nominees from the 5 of all past years ever since I can remember (what, they couldn't find 2 more deserving songs among hundreds of movies?!) and it included a country ballad (lovely and quite cheerful, thanks to the always upbeat Dolly Parton), a soulful ode to lost opportunities, hopes, and dreams (paired with a great scenography), and a ghastly rap act that was nothing more than a cacophony of sounds similar to what you'd hear in a preschool from kids on a sugar high, just worse. The winner? The rap song "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp." Unbelievable.

Naturally, during their acceptance speech, we all could see that the singers were probably high on the same illegal substance abused by Charlize Theron's publicist and/or personal shopper, who should be fired and committed. Not necessarily in that order.

Like I said, the ceremony was pleasant and kept a good rhythm going throughout the night, thanks in no small part to the classy job done by the handsome Jon Stewart, who didn't go overboard with political barbs (this wouldn't have been the right place for them anyway), but treated us to a few, very well positioned bombshells (like the joke on Björk not being able to attend the ceremony because she was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney while she was putting on her dress...)

What worked:

• The stage was fantastic, especially the display above the stage reminiscent of vintage movie theater marquees that showed winners' names, categories, presenters, etc... It was clearly there, but not annoying. A great touch, especially when paired up with the old fashioned ticket booth and the scrolling poster displays.
  
• Tom Hanks' skit on keeping the acceptance speeches short or else...
• The montages of clips from Hollywood's glorious ore are back!!
• Jon Stewart's The Daily Show's-style "for your consideration" ads with a political slant. Brilliant and hysterically funny.
• Introductory clips (or explanations) for virtually all categories, instead of a hand-picked select few that relegates all others to secondary status (and I'm not just referring to categories like Best Achievement in Sound, since oftentimes the supporting categories got shunned by the leading ones.)
• A masterful introduction of Robert Altman for the Honorary Oscar by Meryl Streep (herself introduced as the actor with the highest number of Oscar nominations ever, with 13) and Lily Tomlin. Clearly improvising based on a concept of what they had to say (Altman-style) they showed us what it means to be a great performer. Ms Streep should be nominated next year for THAT performance.
• A good acceptance speech by Robert Altman, relatively short, to the point, and original.
• The return of the excerpts from the Best Original Scores nominees. No matter how long the ceremony has to be, playing a short selection from the nominated scores is de rigueur. And this year we were also treated to the violin master Itzhak Perlman's virtuosity when he played said selections accompanied by Bill Conti's orchestra.

What didn't:

• Ben Stiller's annoying, puerile stint as presenter of the Best Achievement in Visual Effects Oscar (won, deservedly, by King Kong).
• The background music that played every time a winner got onstage and finally clenched the statuette. It was too loud and therefore noticeable, and it was clearly meant to keep the speeches from running too long, a constant reminder to the Oscar recipient that if he went overtime, he'd be cut out without further ado.
• Lauren Bacall's presentation of one of the night's clips. The lady is a legend, but she can barely get around (or so it seemed) and had a very hard time reading her lines on the teleprompter, making her look senile. I love her, but this outing didn't serve her well.
• The montages, albeit among my favorite Oscar treats, had sometimes little to do with the night's themes.
• The decision by the recipients for The March of the Penguins to go onstage carrying huge penguin-teddy bears, as if they had a special significance. Their impact was minimal and generally negative.
• The decision, by the ceremony's director, to cut Cathy Schulman's acceptance speech for Best Picture for Crash in order to keep the ceremony within its schedule running time of 3.5 hours. I'm sorry, I know you don't want to read in the papers that, as usual, the Oscar ceremony went overtime, but you don't cut the speech of the most important award of the night, no matter what time it is. This is one of those rare instances when you do need to make a distinction among categories. The top 8 (picture, director, two for writing, and four for acting) should never be cut, no matter what time it is. It's just rude and counterproductive.

This n' That:

• Matt Dillon was more gorgeous than ever.
• Joaquin Phoenix was bloated (still hot, but bloated like a sea lion).
• George Clooney's speech was great as he acknowledged the critics who accuse the film industry of being out of touch with the American mainstream, but added, "It's probably a good thing. We're the ones who were talking about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular... I'm proud to be a part of this academy, proud to be a part of this community and proud to be out of touch," he said.
  
• For a moment, when Jennifer Garner tripped on her dress, twice, and almost fell in the middle of the stage, I thought we were going to have another one of those "great Oscar moments". Alas, she recovered.
• Rachel Weisz, I assume, is pregnant, otherwise she probably ate a child for breakfast.
• Wallace & Gromit, the winner for Best Animated Feature Film, looks downright funny, and so do its makers.
• Does Dolly Parton wear counterweights on her back? Boy, could those boobs be any bigger? By the way, I love her.

I was very pleased with the winners of the technical Oscars:

• Editing went to Crash, whose story lines were masterfully intertwined.
• Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design went to the critically panned but technically immaculate Memoirs of a Geisha. Ever since the movie came out with a thud, the forecast has always been, "forget about the top tier prizes, and shoot for the technical awards, were you could easily sweep everything up." The costumes especially, were exquisite.
• Makeup went to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which deserved it far more than the other two nominated movies.
• Sound, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects went to King Kong, superior in all three categories to the other nominees by a mile.

So the most glaring result of this year's Academy Awards, in which none of the top nominated movies reached the $100 million benchmark for a commercially successful motion picture, is that the top six prizes got spread out to six different movies: Crash got picture, Brokeback Mountain director, Capote Best Actor, Walk the Line Best Actress, Syriana Best Supporting Actor, and The Constant Gardener Best Supporting Actress. We have to include the next most important two, Original and Adapted Writing, to have an individual movie (two in this case, Crash and Brokeback Mountain respectively) pick more than one statuette.

Interesting and odd. I wonder if it ever happened in Oscar history.

One last thing for Fabio: did you notice that the winning documentary for short subjects (or features, for that matter) wasn't the saddest of the bunch?! It even had the word "triumph" in the title. Go figure.

It's almost time for the Gay Superbowl!!

Tonight, the 78^th Annual Academy Awards will be handed out, and I can't believe I've been so busy I haven't even made a post about them yet!

So here they go, my picks from this year's nominations (the 8 main categories, plus a few others):

Best Motion Picture of the Year:
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Munich
I'm rooting for Brokeback Mountain, which will probably win. I've seen all the nominated movies and my pecking order is this: Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Munich, Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck.

Best Achievement in Directing:
George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck.
Paul Haggis for Crash
Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain
Bennett Miller for Capote
Steven Spielberg for Munich
Again, I'm rooting for Brokeback Mountain's Ang Lee, who is the clear man to beat this year (he cleaned up every directing award this season). Granted, all other directors deserve the award as well, they were all superb.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005)
Terrence Howard for Hustle & Flow (2005)
Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line (2005)
David Strathairn for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
I haven't seen Howard or Phoenix, but my favorites are Brokeback Mountain's Ledger and Capote's Hoffman. They were both great and both played gay man, which means we win no matter what, but I'd vote for Ledger just because he had more to do with less. Hoffman, however, is the clear favorite, having won almost every prize out there.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)
Felicity Huffman for Transamerica (2005)
Keira Knightley for Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Charlize Theron for North Country (2005)
Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005)
Amazingly, I haven't seen ANY of the nominees in this category, so my vote would go to the one actress playing a transgender character, Transamerica's Huffman, but mostly because I read only raves about the performance and because I really like Felicity. However, the favorite leading up to the ceremony is Walk the Line's Witherspoon, who again has won almost every award handed out. The consolation? If Reese wins at least we'll get to see her husband, the fabulous Ryan Phillippe, elated.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
George Clooney for Syriana (2005)
Matt Dillon for Crash (2004)
Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man (2005)
Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
William Hurt for A History of Violence (2005)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen Cinderella Man's Giamatti, a strong favorite up until a few weeks ago, when Syriana's Clooney's stocks started rising. In the end it's going to be a race between the two men, even though I wish Brokeback Mountain's Gyllenhaal had more chances, since he played yet another gay character (YES, this was definitely our year!!) and was great. Crash's Dillon was very good and I read that A History of Violence's Hurt was fantastic, although in a smaller role. He has also already won an Oscar, so he's really a long shot. I'd put my money on Clooney, since he was nominated for 3 awards tonight and had way too much competition in the other two categories for him to even have a shot, so this one would be a way for the Academy to reward a very productive year for him.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Amy Adams for Junebug (2005)
Catherine Keener for Capote (2005)
Frances McDormand for North Country (2005)
Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (2005)
Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
I haven't seen either Junebug or North Country, so I can't speak for those two performances, but the other three were absolutely great. The favorite is The Constant Gardener's Weisz, but Brokeback Mountain's Williams is the dark horse in a race that is often used to make up for awards that can't be handed out in other categories (Williams' win is the only real possible acting Oscar for the movie that is the favorite to win Best Picture). Too bad for Capote's Keener, a great actress that is often overlooked. She reminds me of Joan Allen in this respect. I really like her, but I'm afraid that this isn't her year. By the way, Weisz was absolutely great, so her win would be well deserved.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen:
Crash (2004) - Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - George Clooney, Grant Heslov
Match Point (2005) - Woody Allen
The Squid and the Whale (2005) - Noah Baumbach
Syriana (2005) - Stephen Gaghan
Crash will win this award, even just to make up for other nominations that won't translate into a statuette. It deserves it, since the story and the writing were top notch, but so were Good Night, and Good Luck's, Syriana's, and, above all, Match Point's. I haven't seen The Squid and the Whale, but a win for Woody Allen, back in shape after years of misfires, would have been a nice acknowledgment.

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published:
Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana
Capote (2005) - Dan Futterman
The Constant Gardener (2005) - Jeffrey Caine
A History of Violence (2005) - Josh Olson
Munich (2005) - Tony Kushner, Eric Roth
Brokeback Mountain will take home this Oscar, one of the most deserved of the night, since the whole movie, one of the best in years, generated from an 11 page magazine story. Whoever is able to turn such a short story into a full fledged, deep and passionate script, deserves an Oscar. I saw all the other nominees, except for A History of Violence, and they would all deserve it, but this one is already in Brokeback's column.

As for the other categories, I hope King Kong takes home all 3 technical awards it's been nominated for, since I liked the movie and it deserves these 3 Oscars, and it would also be a nice follow up for director Peter Jackson, whose previous effort, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, swept up 11 (out of 11!!) Academy Awards two years ago.

A movie that will surely win a lot of technical prizes is certainly Memoirs of a Geisha, which was, not surprisingly, shut out of all main categories given the little interest shown by the public and the lukewarm reception by critics.

The ceremony's host, Jon Stewart, is a newbie, and let's hope he does as good a job as he does on his The Daily Show. In any case, it might end up being a pretty lame ceremony, given that most of the main categories have already been decided. Or so we think.

I guess we'll just have to tune in to find out...