YDJ News Share: February 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Davy Jones of the Monkees dies

Martin County, Fla., Medical Examiner's Office confirms report of fatal heart attack; he was 66

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Should Cinemas Raise Prices for Oscar-Winning Movies?

The Pirates! Band of Misfits and Their Pop Precursors

<cite>The Pirates! Band of Misfits</cite> and Their Pop Precursors

The attitude 15 years ago was "nobody likes pirates." But today Aardman's swashbuckler movie may be one of the most ambitious stop-motion movies ever.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Berenstain Bears Co-Creator Jan Berenstain Dead at 88

The Associated Press
Along with late husband Stan Berenstain, the writer and illustrator created hundreds of books.

Oscar Night Turns Into a Winning Night for Netflix, Too

Some of the biggest winners on Oscar night, including Best Picture and Best Director winner The Artist and Best Documentary winner Undefeated, will be available for streaming later this year on Netflix, and nowhere else.

Oscars 2012: Inside the Governors Ball

Matthew Belloni
Jean Dujardin, Meryl Streep, Octavia Spencer and other winners revel while their statuettes are engraved and producers lament the wins that weren't.

Oscars 2012: Complete Winners List

THR Staff
"The Artist" and "Hugo" topped the 84th annual Academy Awards with five wins apiece.

Oscars '12: 19 memorable moments

Octavia Spencer, Meryl Streep, Jean Dujardin words; ''Oz'' advice; Billy Crystal up to his old tricks; more

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Indie Spirit Awards 2012: Complete Winners List

Jay Fernandez, THR Staff
"The Artist" took home four awards -- including best feature -- at the 27th annual awards ceremony, hosted by Seth Rogen.

Spirit Awards winners list

Click below for the up-to-the-minute list of Spirit Award winners...

Spirit Awards winners list

Award Central

Oscar’s (Un)forgettable Moments

With the 84^th Academy Awards ceremony approaching, Slate V takes a journey back through Oscar moments that are etched in our memory, whether we like it or not.

What’s Inside the Oscar Envelopes?

The 84th annual Academy Awards will be on Sunday. As always, the winners will be revealed when a movie star pulls a small card out of an envelope. What, exactly, is written on those cards?

Oscar to Obscurity: Which Winners and Nominees Stumbled After Statue

Tim Appelo
White-hot on the Academy's big night, some kept working, while others couldn't find work.

How 'Life Is Beautiful's' Roberto Benigni Stole the Oscars Show in 1999

Bill Higgins
The Italian actor-director's Holocaust comedy-drama won the actor, score and foreign-language film Academy Awards that year.

'The Artist' wins best picture at Cesar awards

Award Central:
B&W silent pic takes best film, director and 4 other prizes

How the Oscars and Hollywood Turned Their Backs on Green Cars

Daniel Miller
Nearly a decade after a cavalcade of Toyota Priuses first pulled up to the red carpet, a scarcity of both sexy styles and industry support have carmakers trying to recharge interest in environmental autos.

How to Do Stop-Motion Animation on a Budget

Learn how to make fun stop-motion movies with your kids, without spending Hollywood money.

Why it’s still important for bands to do well on Saturday Night Live

For Our Consideration: Why it’s still important for bands to do well on Saturday Night Live

In case you missed it, Saturday Night Live is relevant again. I don’t mean that it’s back to being funny, though that’s occasionally been true this season. (Granted, I’m a sucker for sketches where Fred Armisen impersonates Barack Obama impersonating how Bill Cosby makes a hoagie.) I’m referring to the show’s musical offerings, which have been consistently generating headlines lately, though not necessarily for positive reasons. It’s not supposed to be this way: In the age of YouTube and an overabundance of music websites offering original video content, a 37-year-old TV show on ...

The Inside Story of Making Moneyball

The Inside Story of Making
Moneyball

Moneyball, the movie adaption of Michael Lewis’ best-selling book, is nominated for six Oscars, including best picture. A remarkable showing considering the film almost didn’t get made.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

'Star Wars: Phantom Menace' Crosses $1 Billion Mark at Box Office

Pamela McClintock
The pic soon will overtake "The Dark Knight" to become the No. 10 grosser of all time.

The Oscars' Performance-Capture Problem

The industry's biggest awards still won't recognize the amazing work being done by actors and effects people who are changing the face of movies.

In Back Alleys and Basements, Video Arcades Quietly Survive

Costume designers honor best-dressed pics

Costume designers honor best-dressed pics

Award Central:
'Potter,' 'W.E.,' 'Dragon Tattoo' earn CDG kudos

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Leonardo DiCaprio Buys ‘Wizard of Oz’ Ruby Slippers

Leonardo DiCaprio Buys ‘Wizard of Oz’ Ruby Slippers "The Wizard of Oz" Ruby Red Slippers worn by Judy Garland in 1939. The shoes are a women's size 5 and are estimated to cost between $2 million and $3 million dollars.

"The Wizard of Oz" Ruby Red Slippers worn by Judy Garland in 1939. The shoes are a women's size 5 and are estimated to cost between $2 million and $3 million dollars.

Thanks to some financial assistance from luminaries such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg, a pair of Dorothy's famed ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz was acquired by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy announced today.

The slippers will become a prized exhibit at the planned Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which will eventually be housed at the former May Co. building now known as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art West on Wilshire Boulevard.

“The ruby slippers occupy an extraordinary place in the hearts of movie audiences the world over,” said Bob Iger, president and CEO of the Walt Disney Co. and chairman of the capital campaign for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. “This is a transformative acquisition for our collection.”

According to the Academy, DiCaprio led a group of “angel donors” who made the purchase possible. Other donors included Spielberg and Terry Semel, the co-chair of LACMA and former chairman/CEO of Warner Bros. and Yahoo!

The slippers are one of four authentic pairs known to exist from the classic 1939 film. According to the Academy, the pair it purchased is in the best condition of the group. The shoes are known as the “Witch's Shoes,” because they are believed to be the ones on the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East after Dorothy's house falls on her. They are also believed to have been worn by Judy Garland in close-ups, including the iconic scene in which she clicks her heels while repeating, “There's no place like home.”

Four pairs of the ruby slippers were found on the MGM Culver City lot in 1970 by costumer Kent Warner while preparing for an auction of movie props. Warner kept the “Witch's Shoes” for years before eventually selling them at auction.

The auction house Profiles in History handled the sale as part of its most recent Hollywood Icons auction. The Academy did not specify the purchase price, but Profiles in History had estimated the worth of the shoes at $2million to $3 million prior to the auction.

Another pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers is at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C., but they were expected to be taken off public display Thursday so they can be restored in preparation for an exhibit at the National Museum of American History.

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Oscars Will Drop References to Kodak Theatre

Alex Ben Block
The Academy Awards venue will be referred to as the Hollywood and Highland Center in promos and on the Oscar telecast in the wake of Kodak bankruptcy.

Oscars: Right winners, wrong years

EW's critics list 10 deserving honorees cited for lesser work -- and when they really should have won

Costume designers honor best-dressed films of year

Award Central:
"Potter," "W.E.," "Dragon Tattoo" earn CDG kudos

Oscars: 10 (not-so) Best Pictures

''Gump'' over ''Pulp Fiction''? ''Gandhi'' over ''E.T.''? EW's critics on winners that really should've lost

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

How To Win an Oscar Without Saying a Word

If Oscar prognosticators are right, then Jean Dujardin has a good chance of beating out George Clooney for best actor at this year’s Academy Awards. Dujardin is excellent in The Artist, capturing the insouciant charisma and tragic vanity of a past-prime matinee idol. Yet Dujardin is the frontrunner for a very simple reason: He acts without speaking. Every actor in every film made before 1929 performed without dialogue, but since then it’s become an excellent way to receive attention during awards season. In fact, Dujardin isn’t the only nonspeaker to receive an Oscar nomination this year: Max von Sydow is up for best supporting actor thanks to his work in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He’s the best thing about the film, bestowing equipoise and ambiguity upon an otherwise cloying tear-Hooverer—but again, it’s likely because he was so good without speaking that the 82-year-old Swedish workhorse received his first nomination in 23 years (only another-82 year-old workhorse, Christopher Plummer, stands in his way).

Marlee Matlin remembers Oscar '87

Twenty-five years after her Best Actress win, actress reminisces: ''It still feels just like yesterday''

Monday, February 20, 2012

Sound Editors Recognize 'Hugo,' 'The Muppets,' 'Super 8,' 'Tintin,' 'War Horse'

Carolyn Giardina
Also at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards, producer Gale Anne Hurd and sound designer and editor George Watters II were honored.

Writers Guild Awards: Complete Winners List

Jay A. Fernandez
Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" won best original screenplay, and "The Descendants" won best adapted screenplay.

Nudity = Best Actress success?

Oscar Fact or Myth? We research the common belief baring all on screen gives a nominee an edge

Just How Many Oscar Voters Are Old White Men?

Who decides who wins the little gold men at the Oscars? It turns out it's mostly older, white men.

This fact alone isn't earth-shattering if you've ever paid attention to which movies get nominated or you happened to notice what a big effing deal it was for a black women to win a Best Actress award in the 21st century. [ more › ]

Sunday, February 19, 2012

A screenplay that could’ve been Best Picture. Here’s why you can’t see it.

Mystery on the Hollywood Backlot

It’s awards season once again, when Hollywood celebrates, if not the greatest and most audacious films of the year, at least the best of a certain kind of movie. This year, the academy is likely to honor films about filmmaking: The Artist and Hugo are love letters to silent cinema (and The Artist is nearly a silent film in its own right). The spectacle of the film industry telling the world how great it is always smacks of the Ouroboros , but this year, when the most-lauded movies are themselves paeans to the art of filmmaking, we’re in danger of running out of snake.

Sound Mixers Laud 'Hugo' at the Cinema Audio Society Awards

Gregg Kilday
"Boardwalk Empire" and "Too Big to Fail" notch victories in the television categories.

9 Things Parents Should Know About The Secret World of Arrietty

9 Things Parents Should Know About <cite>The Secret World of Arrietty</cite>

The latest from Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli is yet another enchanting tale for families to enjoy together.

NAACP Image Award Winners Include 'The Help,' Stars Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis

THR Staff
Jennifer Hudson and Laurence Fishburne also score trophies during a night that hands the Vanguard award to George Lucas and celebrates the lives of the late Whitney Houston and Don Cornelius.

6 Oscar-Nominated Scribes on Nailing the Perfect Scene

THR Staff
Screenwriters behind "Margin Call," "The Ides of March," "Bridesmaids," "The Artist" and other hopefuls go over the pages that sealed their nominations.

Apple Announces OS X Mountain Lion for Mac Desktops

Apple has announced its latest version of OS X for Macs ? and like all iterations of its desktop operating system, the latest version is named after a big cat. It?s called Mountain Lion, and it will be more like iOS than ever, as Apple integrates various mobile services and moves to yearly OS updates across all its devices.

'The Colbert Report' Abruptly Goes Dark

Marisa Guthrie
Though the reason for Stephen Colbert's absence remains a mystery, sources say the show will resume production soon.

Kodak Free to Exit Oscar Venue Amid Bankruptcy Restructuring

THR Staff
A judge ruled the embattled photography company can end its deal for naming rights to the Hollywood theater, just two weeks shy of the 2012 awards.

'I Will Always Love You': Whitney Houston's Ultimate Song

'I Will Always Love You': Whitney Houston's Ultimate Song (Analysis)

Joe Levy
"The Bodyguard" was a hit movie that spawned a 17 million-selling soundtrack and a single -- "I Will Always Love You" -- that was the pop icon's finest moment.

'Simpsons'...for 86+ hours straight!

Meet two brave souls who set a new Guiness Record for longest continuous TV viewing from Feb. 8-12

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

We’re Living in a Golden Age of Documentary Filmmaking

This January at the Cinema Eye Honors, an alternative to the Oscars for documentary films, director and top prizewinner Steve James said, “I feel and have felt for a long time that we are in a golden age of documentary filmmaking.” Yet outside of his fellow filmmakers and industry professionals at the Museum of the Moving image on that night, few seem to be aware of it.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Why Whitney Houston Doesn't Have a Star on The Walk of Fame

Rebecca Ford
The late singer was selected for a spot on the famous Hollywood sidewalk in 1995, but a date was never set for a ceremony.

"Simpsons" Creator Matt Groening Getting Walk of Fame Star Tomorrow

Hollywood is going to give "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening the ultimate forever Valentine and an early birthday gift tomorrow as he's honored with the 2,459th star on the Walk of Fame. [ more › ]

Cinematographers Give Top Honor to Emmanuel Lubezki for 'The Tree of Life'

Carolyn Giardina
At ASC's 26th Outstanding Achievement Awards, the TV winners included Jonathan Freeman for "Boardwalk Empire" and Michael Weaver for "Californication."

More Qs than As in kudos season

Award Central:
The final Oscar votes can't tell the whole story

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Grammy Awards 2012: Complete Winners And Nominees List

THR Staff
A complete rundown of the winners and nominees in all categories from the Feb. 12 show.

read mor

BAFTA Awards: Complete Winners List

Rebecca Ford
"The Artist" wins for best picture, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and costume design.

Whitney Houston 1963-2012: The Iconic Singer's Life and Career in Pictures

Sophie A. Schillaci , Kyleen James
News of Whitney Houston's sudden death shocked the industry on Saturday, Feb. 11, just hours before she was scheduled to hit the red carpet at mentor Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy gala. Heralded as one of the best female vocalists of all time, Houston was staging another return to the spotlight with a starring role in the big screen remake of "Sparkle" and potential judges' seat on "The X Factor." The singer will be seen in the posthumous release of the Sony TriStar film, which includes two of her final recorded tracks, on Aug. 17.