Jennifer Lawrence's Big Oscar Night Approaches; Chart the past month of Oscar jockeying and how the Academy's Directing nom snub of Ben Affleck for Argo has created sympathy and even more momentum for the film to win Best Picture, while simultaneously creating a plausible scenario for a Wild Card in Directing, or even a surprise in another category, which is why Hollywood studios are spending lavishly to sway those fickle last-minute Academy voters; Louisville native Jennifer Lawrence continues to make people go gag-ga and get weak in the knees, #jenniferlawrence

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thewrapnews YouTube Channel video: TheWrap CEO and Editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman talks with Oscar columnist Steve Pond about the 85th Annual Academy Awards and how the results of the Producers Guild and SAG Awards have only increased the momentum for 'Argo'; the year of waiting patiently is over as Kevin Tsujihara is officially named new Warner Bros. CEO. Uploaded January 28, 2013. http://youtu.be/URJjo170GTE


thewrapnews YouTube Channel video: TheWrap CEO and Editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman talks with Oscar columnist Steve Pond about the 85th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday night. Uploaded February 18, 2013. http://youtu.be/jX9EWpzB-Wc

Is this the year that Steven Spielberg's actually loses the Best Director Oscar that's been thought by some in the know to be his for the taking for 'Lincoln' in the closing days to Ang Lee for 'Life of Pi' or David O. Russell for 'Silver Linings Playbook," perhaps in part due to the continuing national controversy over the historical accuracy of the film?
And to repeat a question that hasn't been asked in a few years, "Did it [Argo] direct itself?"

The glaring hole created by Ben Affleck being ignored for directing Best Picture nominee 'Argo' has not only created a vacuum for a Wild Card to emerge in that category, but also one to emerge in another category, and Hollywood studios have been quick to seize the opportunity, engaging in very heavy  spending -even by their own standards- for paid print and display ads in industry trade mags and time on local Los Angeles TV stations.

I'm told that the half-hour paid studio ads that ran at 7:30 Pacific, following the SOTU last week, did huge numbers, relative to what you might think, and that people in the industry were literally dumbfounded when they saw the reports with the raw data.
And that doesn't even include what Warner Bros. did...

WB buys half-hour in prime time to promote Ben Affleck's 'Argo'
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-wb-takes-a-primetime-half-hour-to-promote-ben-afflecks-argo-20130213,0,6812757.story

The pride of a Lou-a-vull - Jennifer Lawrence
She will win the Oscar on Sunday night for Silver Linings Playbook

Louisville Courier-Journal

The Buzz 

Louisville's Jennifer Lawrence lands GQ

April 19, 2011
Photo gallery includes many photos you've never seen before 

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110420/COLUMNISTS1802/304200063/-1/features11/The-Buzz-Louisville-s-Jennifer-Lawrence-lands-GQ?nclick_check=1

thewrapnews YouTube Channel video: Jennifer Lawrence OscarWrap Cover Shoot. Uploaded February 17, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlAcXFIC6gE
Cover shot from above is here: http://www.thewrap.com/oscarwrap2013

In Sweden, they love Jennifer Lawrence so much that repeats of the forgettable WTBS-TV sit-com she did a few years ago, The Bill Engvall Show, actually airs Monday thru Friday in the morning, as I discovered when I was in Stockholm for eight days last month.
I don't think they even repeat that show HERE!

I'd never seen the show when it originally aired from 2007-'09, and was flipping thru the channels one morning in my hotel room during a commercial break during the national news.
I kept flipping until I stopped when I saw the familiar face and taut figure of a younger JL playing the role of -wait for it- young teen daughter.
http://youtu.be/iF0eQjHDyD8

And, of course, she'd been on the cover of the February Vanity Fair I read aboard SAS while en route to the capital of Scandinavia.
Video: Behind-the-scenes of Vanity Fair photo cover shoot with photographer Ellen von Unwerth: Jennifer Lawrence’s Sexy New York–Skyline Shoot 
Warning: Intense! You may need to sit down so you don't faint!



JL articles in Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/search?page=1&sort=publishdate_dt+desc&query=Jennifer+Lawrence

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http://www.thewrap.com/

TheWrap's YouTube Channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/thewrapnews 

Tom Hooper's 'Les Misérables' looks absolutely, ridiculously AMAZING! Stupendous times ten! Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway & Amanda Seyfried musical opens at Christmas, and seems to be a veritable license to print money; Baz Luhrmannn's 'The Great Gatsby' opening is pushed back to May 2013; @LesMiserables

OfficialRegalMovies video: Les Misérables, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried, and is directed by Oscar-winner Tom Hooper (The King's Speech). Opens at Christmas. Uploaded September 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/wwgQjfg0hZw

Stupendous times ten! Tom Hooper's 'Les Misérables' looks absolutely, ridiculously AMAZING! Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway & Amanda Seyfried musical opens at Christmas, and seems to be a veritable license to print money; Baz Luhrmannn's 'The Great Gatsby' opening is pushed back to May 2013; @LesMiserables

LesMiserablesFilm video: Les Misérables (teaser) Uploaded May 31, 2012.
http://youtu.be/2TRU1vt8o7o

Frankly, after looking at how rapturous Les Misérables looks, as much as I love Baz Luhrmannn's genius and inventiveness and was looking forward to seeing his production of The Great Gatsby at Christmas, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and the always-amazing Carey Mulligan, now that word has come this morning -below- that the film has been moved to May 10th, I can't help but wonder what Loopper would've done with Fitzgerald's Gatsby.

I say this after having seen the Gatsby teasers online and then the most recent trailer for it a few weeks back, something I meant to mention here in this space.
Seriously, when I actually heard the rap music at the beginning of a film about Long Island in the 1920's, I positively cringed. 
Cringed!

Can there be no end in sight to this trend of forcing inappropriate popular music on a subject just because you can get permission to use a song or the singer is a friend?


http://youtu.be/rARN6agiW7o

Unfortunately, by the fifth time I watched it, I got the very strong sense that characterization and plot development would take a back-seat to over-the-top scenes of opulence, which almost every good director can do with a large enough budget.
By the time I saw the trailer for the sixth time, a week after seeing it for the first time, I felt like I not only didn't want to see the film, I didn't want to even see another film at a multiplex that was right next to it.

Being creative and magical with characters, giving movie-goers insight into their inner struggles or personality development, that's the thing I look for.
It's what Luhrmann did so well with the ridiculously-talented Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge, in that despite all the visual and musical flourishes, her character just jumps out at you and makes you want to care about her.

No matter what else you want to convey to an audience, that's especially got to be the case in a film based on a book I've read dozens of times.
Not just the most-American novel of the past 100 years, the best one.

It seems that tens of thousands of other film fans around the world who have seen the Gatsby
trailer have come to the same conclusion regarding the rap music, since it's typically the first thing that comes up in a conversation or email: How could they?
As presently constructed, based on the outlines we've seen thru teasers and trailers, I have serious doubts about the film's ability to draw-in movie-goers over age 35.

TheWrap

'The Great Gatsby' Release Date Moved to May 2013

By Tim Kenneally & Brent Lang

Published: September 20, 2012 @ 9:59 am

"The Great Gatsby" will kick off the summer season for Warner Bros. on May 10, 2013, the studio said Friday.

The Baz Luhrmann-directed film will be released internationally the following week.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/great-gatsby-release-date-moved-may-2013-57266 
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http://www.lesmiserablesfilm.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/LesMiserablesFilm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/

FULL SPEECH video: Kevin Costner's heartfelt & nuanced speech about Whitney Houston delivers an emotional wallop that won't be forgotten by anyone who heard it

ITN's Show Biz 411 video: Kevin Costner's ENTIRE speech at Whitney Houston's funeral at the New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, N.J. February 18, 2012 http://youtu.be/2wjh0N1EzPI

Kevin Costner's ENTIRE heartfelt and nuanced speech about Whitney Houston delivers an emotional wallop that won't be forgotten by anyone who heard it. Given the level of sadness that was both inside and outside of that church, this speech was about as close as you can come to pitch-perfect.

Is the show biz headline of the year news that a "Wonder Woman" TV series is returning to network TV with David E. Kelly in charge? For NOW it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLnpZLnIdXU

As evidenced by the above, you can definitely put this blogger in the Emily Deschanel as Wonder Woman camp.
Not that anyone from Warner Bros. asked for my opinion yet.


So I got an odd phone call from The Left Coast from a friend in show biz very early Saturday morning their time, which for the person calling me, was around 2 p.m. Eastern, this being someone who is a confirmed night owl.

I received the call while I was watching the godawful and ponderous U-M at Clemson football game on ESPN2, which was late coming on owing to a 20-minute delay in the Manchester United vs. Sunderland soccer game, which ended with a less-than-thrilling nil-nil tie. http://www.premierleague.com/page/Home/0,,12306,00.html

The rather short message told to me thru yawns was, roughly paraphrasing:
Wonder Woman, network TV, David E. Kelly, and Andreeva.

That was enough for me to understand the gist and see the cosmic possibilities, but for those of you who either don't keep up on such things or for whom anything less than breaking news about a $250-million feature film based on Joss Whedon's Firefly is not worth paying attention to, here's what's what. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28TV_series%29

DeadlineHollywood.com
Wonder Woman Returning To TV As Series Written And Produced By David E. Kelley
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline TV Editor
Friday October 1, 2010 @ 3:00pm PDT

This has to be the highest-profile effort to bring Wonder Woman to television: One of TV's best-known creators, The Practice's David E. Kelley, has come on board to write and produce a new series project about the female superhero. The project, from Warner Bros Television where Kelley is based, and Warner Bros' DC Entertainment, will be taken out to the networks shortly. Kelley, who has created several female centered shows like Ally McBeal, has wanted to tackle a contemporary take on the World War II-era Amazon. He recently met with the DC team who also have been looking for ways to launch a new Wonder Woman TV franchise.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.deadline.com/2010/10/wonder-woman-returning-to-tv-as-series-written-and-produced-by-david-e-kelley/

See also: 'Ally McBeal' producer to give Wonder Woman a modern makeover
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/ally-mcbeal-producer-to-give-wonder-woman-a-modern-makeover-2097657.html

Of course, if you want to go for a more petite, brainy look for her, how can you do better than Rachel Bilson from the first year of The O.C.?
Ooh-la-la La Bilson!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnZ70Q4SN2g


Love La Bilson!
http://www.popsugar.com/tag/%22Rachel+Bilson%22

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Or, as Saturday Night Live once sagely noted, "What if Superman landed in Nazi Germany?"

If Scotland wants a super-hero with a kilt and an anti-English bent, knock yourself out.

If India wants a super-hero that's a cow who is a re-incarnated Prime Minister, go to it.

And if Belarus wants a super-hero that's ignored largely because nobody in the U.S. much thinks about Belarus except at the Winter Olympics, fine, he can be some pipeline worker who is a hen-pecked husband with a super-power, I'm fine with that, too.

But this effort below, if a trial balloon, is one that will utterly fail.
Some traditions must be upheld.

If I had my heart set on seeing Eliza Dushku, Summer Glau or Emily Deschanel as Wonder Woman Classic, and I've been heard to say that a few times over the past ten years, I don't want to see them in a film dressed like some sort of cheap second-rate Arabian Knights concubine, comprende?

Everyone says they learned the real lesson of New Coke.
Clearly, some did not.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/07/01/new-wonder-woman-loses-patriotic-costume/

New Wonder Woman Loses Patriotic Costume in Favor of 'Globalized' Duds

By Jo Piazza

Published July 01, 2010

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Previously at Hallandale Beach Blog on the subject of Wonder Woman:

Lynda Carter: Brains, Wit and Beauty!

Hallandale Beach DESPERATELY needs a Lynda Carter-like Wonder Woman to fight crime, cronyism and corruption at HB City Hall and all throughout South Florida.
(Or FBI Special Agent Dana Scully!)
You Can't Beat the Original!

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Fort Lauderdale Native and FSU Grad Tiffany Fallon as Wonder Woman

Tiffany is married to Joe Don Rooney of the Grammy Award-winning country group Rascal Flatts. Playboy February 2008.
Click on photo to go to Tiffany's MySpace page or go to her official website at: http://www.tiffanyfallon.com/

Trailer for ABC-TV's The New Adventures of Wonder Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqTs3qKzVJI


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074074/