Slumdog Millionaire: Love the film, hate the actors

From the desk of:
Harold P. Stuffedsuit
Publicist
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Dear adoring public,

We at the Academy would like to congratulateSlumdog Millionaire on its history-making 10 nominations. In acknowledging the grand collective effort that made this film a reality, and in keeping with the Academy's longstanding tradition of recognizing Indian contributions to the film industry, we pay tribute to Slumdog Millionaire by excluding it from our acting categories.

We are aware that the film's lead, Dev Patel, was nominated for Best Actor awards by both the Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. We are also aware thatSlumdog Millionaire's actors won the Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Sadly, we don't know any of these people.

Had their characters been impersonated by other, better-known actors, the situation may have been different. We are, after all, the same people who gave Ben Kingsley a Best Actor award for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi. Thankfully, director Danny Boyle's commitment to authenticity spared his cast from inclusion among the Frank Caliendo-like impersonators nominated this year.

There weren't any gay actors playing gay men in 2008, but Sean Penn played a gay man in Milk. Considering that we nominated him in 2002 for playing a developmentally disabled man in I Am Sam, we couldn't overlook his latest stretch. There weren't any prominent African-American actors nominated this year, but Robert Downey Jr. played an actor who played one in Tropic Thunder. That was good enough for us. There wasn't even a Tom Hanks film to nominate this year, but we felt thatBrad Pitt did such a good job emulating a Forrest Gump-era Hanks in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that we couldn't pass him up. The only way an actor from Slumdog would have been recognized was if Regis Philbin was cast as the Millionaire host.

We realize that an Indian film industry that produces nearly 1,000 movies a year has only received three Oscar nominations (Mother India in 1957, Salaam Bombay in 1988 and Lagaan in 2001) in its history. We also realize that Bollywood is kicking the U.S. film industry around the globe to thetune of a billion more moviegoers each year and a growth rate double that of Hollywood's. However, the Academy will not be accused of xenophobia. If 2005 nominee Water wasn't filmed in Sri Lanka, India would have four nominations all to itself. It would still have no wins, mind you, but that would have narrowed the odds a bit.

Besides, we were honoring actors from other countries before it was even a thing to do. Back in 1964, we gave all our acting awards to Rex Harrison (England), Julie Andrews (England), Peter Ustinov (England) and Lila Kedrova (France via Russia). Last year, our best actors were Javier Bardem (Spain), Marion Cotillard (France), Tilda Swinton (Scotland) and Daniel Day-Lewis (an Irish Brit, whodathunkit?). What more do you people want?

Nominees from somewhere other than Western countries, Japan or China? We gave one to Charlize Theron and she's from South Africa. That totally counts! What about Cambodia's Haing Ngor forThe Killing Fields in 1985? Sidney Poitier is from the Bahamas. You need a passport to go there, right? In some cases, it's an honor just to be nominated. Isn't that right, Djimon Hounsou?

For foreign films, however, the Academy feels the greatest honor for actors is not to be nominated at all. We gave Roberto Benigni a Best Actor award for Life is Beautiful and look what happened:Damaged upholstery, ruptured eardrums and uncontrolled gesturing. Never again. Two years later,Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon took home four awards. You didn't hear Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh or Zhang Ziyi complaining about being shut out for acting nods, did you? It's because we wouldn't let them.

We hope that the cast of Slumdog Millionaire will appreciate this honor and appreciate the delicate balance that the Academy is trying to maintain. After all, if we nominated actors such as Patel, Toshiro Mifune or Catherine Deneuve, how would Art Carney, Tommy Lee Jones or Marisa Tomei ever get the recognition they so richly deserve?

Patronizingly yours,

The Academy

- Jason Notte, The Huffington Post

knox leon and vivienne marcheline.

looks exactly like shiloh. angelina´s lips, brad´s coloring.

penelope cruz is pure pleasure to watch in vicky cristina barcelona

or in any other movie of hers. she is like the epitome of every stereotype for spanish women. and she's an excellent actress.

Academy Award nominations

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The romantic fantasy "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" led Academy Awards contenders Thursday with 13 nominations, among them best picture and acting honors for Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson, and a directing slot for David Fincher.

Other best-picture nominees are "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader" and "Slumdog Millionaire."

As expected, Heath Ledger had a supporting-actor nomination for "The Dark Knight" on the one-year anniversary of his death from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. But the Batman blockbuster was shut out for other top categories such as best picture and director.

"Slumdog Millionaire" lived up to its rags-to-riches theme, coming in second with 10 nominations, including a directing spot for Danny Boyle and two of the three song slots.

Real-life couple Pitt and Angelina Jolie both will be going to the Oscars as nominees. Jolie had a best-actress nomination for the missing-child drama "Changeling."

The acting categories were loaded with surprises. Kate Winslet won two Golden Globes, best dramatic actress for "Revolutionary Road" and supporting actress for "The Reader." But she was nominated for lead actress at the Oscars for "The Reader" and shut out for "Revolutionary Road."

Actors considered longshots also sneaked in, among lead-actor nominee Richard Jenkins for "The Visitor," best-actress contender Melissa Leo for "Frozen River" and supporting-actor pick Michael Shannon for "Revolutionary Road."

Winslet reunited with "Titanic" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio for "Revolutionary Road," but he also was shut out for a nomination on that film.

Other best-actress nominees were Anne Hathaway for "Rachel Getting Married" and Meryl Streep for "Doubt."

Joining Pitt and Jenkins in the best-actor category were Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; and Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."

Other acting snubs included Clint Eastwood for "Gran Torino," Sally Hawkins for "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Kristin Scott Thomas for "I've Loved You So Long."

But perhaps the biggest surprise overall was the so-so results for "The Dark Knight," which had been picking up momentum as one Hollywood trade guild after another picked it as one of the year's best films.

The largest blockbuster in years, "The Dark Knight" had eight nominations, but other than Ledger's honor, its scored only in technical categories such as cinematography, visual effects and editing.

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my bet is brad pitt won't win. :( although it would be nice. probably mickey rourke. slumdog millionaire has good chances for best picture and director. i doubt angelina jolie will win either, but maybe anne hathaway or that frozen river woman. but i would love kate winslet to win, so i bet her. i bet heath ledger will win, but i'm not surprised the dark knight got shut out for other non-technical nominations. it wasn't as good as people hyped it up to be, save for heath ledger.

ridiculously big fan of kate winslet

 loved her in the holiday, loved her in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, loved her in iris. i think she's been underrated until now.

winning 2 golden globes for best actress and best supporting actress, for revolutionary road and the reader? sounds like she's finally been recognized.

Speeches at the Golden Globes

Known for its informal, freewheeling style, the Golden Globes did not disappoint on Sunday, as several stars delivered clever, offbeat speeches onstage. 

British comedian Ricky Gervais was the first to break up the audience, which he attempted to silence by saying, "Shhhush! How rude you lot are, just because you are film stars." 

He then went on to make fun of his lack of a Globe nomination – and his attempt to get one. "That's the last time I have sex with 200 middle-age journalists," he said of the Hollywood Foreign Press, who give out the Globes. "Europeans with wispy beards. And the men were worse." 

Later, 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan got the crowd to roar when the NBC show was named best comedy series. "Tina Fey and I had an agreement," he said. "If Barack Obama won, I would speak for the show from now on. Welcome to post-racial America!" 

Soon afterward, Fey had her own turn to speak, as the best leading actress in a comedy series. "I've always loved the Hollywood Foreign Press," she said of the group that hands out the trophies. "As a kid, I had all the Hollywood Foreign Press action figures." 

Fey – whose career year included her spot-on impersonation of former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live – went on to say, "If you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet. You can find a lot of people who don't like you." She then listed several screen names of her online critics and told them each to "suck it."