“Academy News, Oprah Award, Heather Locklear, Nicole Kidman’s Legs,” may seem like a weird mix, but it’s all Hollywood and AMPAS. After a bit of a self-imposed break, this blogger’s back to posting news on the Academy Awards, but this time with an eye toward giving it a better “boost” in search – I want to do more than just capture the position in search news for the “Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”
This Academy News has Tom Sherak, it’s President, being reelected for the third straight year. Now, that means, according to the rules of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), that after one more successful election, that will be “it” for Mr. Sherak. Too bad. Tom’s successfully steered the Oscars, the Academy’s prime television event, out of its’ rating problems. And while it’s not yet setting the World on fire as it used to, the Oscars in 2011 became an event again.
AMPAS also announced, with some bit of controversy, the selected recipients of the Governor’s Award: James Earl Jones, Dick Smith, and Oprah Winfrey. But for some reason the mention of Oprah Winfrey set John Anderson and Armond White, the New York Film Critics Circle chair, and former former Film Critics Circle chair respectively, into a tizzy. Anderson: “She’s in the motion picture industry? It seems like a shameless bid for a ratings boost — although once they start showing clips from Beloved and The Color Purple the numbers will plummet.”
Armond White said “Does this newly announced Academy prize prove that Oprah means the same thing to Hollywood as past Jean Hersholt Award winners Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Lew Wasserman, Charlton Heston? Is this just another way for the academy to continue to grovel for TV ratings?”
As far as I’m concerned, Anderson and White need to just shut up. Oprah’s contributions to many in Hollywood, particularly folks like Marc Friedland, who Oprah recommended to design the Oscar Envelop for 2011, are largely not known. This changes that.
But Tom Sherak said it better than I ever could: “Oprah has given away more than $500 million personally, plus more through her talk show, scholarship funds and her Angel Network, is one of the most philanthropic performers in the world. Oprah has given and given and given. She’s a member of the academy, she was nominated for an Academy Award and she has produced movies. This is not about personality. This is about a person who has come from the depths, risen to the heights and given back. That’s a perfect example of why this award was created.”
End of story.
Academy’s Tech Council Selects 2011 Interns
The final bit of AMPAS news before I explain the Nicole Kidman photo above, is that the “The Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected five students to participate in a summer internship program designed to provide real-world experience to students interested in careers in motion picture computer graphics, archiving, sound, research and technology,” as the press release reads.
And considering that there’s a local hero in this group, that calls for a separate blog post. But here are the students picked to be interns:
Yunfei Bai, Georgia Institute of Technology – Rhythm & Hues Studios
Yunfeng Bai, Cornell University – Industrial Light & Magic
Yeon Jin Lee, University of California, Berkeley – Pixar Animation Studios
Alex Pagliaro, Rochester Institute of Technology – Science and Technology Council
Xinxin Zhang, New York University – Pixar Animation Studios
Hey, what’s up with the Bai listing? That must be a talented family, or a coincidence!
OK, Now: Nicole Kidman’s Legs and Heather Locklear’s boobs.
The talk is about how Nicole Kidman got out of a car sporting a mini-skirt, and legs. Great legs. The bigger talk is about Heather Locklear’s great boobs at, yep, 50 years old. To ask if she had plastic surgery is a terrible question asked by some people who either are just being mean, or don’t know about the results of a good fitness habit.
Say, this is a great generation that produces women so freaking hot, age doesn’t matter at all.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll