Live Blog: Your In-Flight Movie "The Avengers"

The following was written on the flight from New York City to Utah last week as I left on my vacation (and awesome people took over). When I returned home I discovered that The Avengers was reopening on a ton of cinemas for one week only -- Happy Labor Day Weekend -- so I ought not to have strained my neck.

Somewhere in flyover country...

my craned neck view of "The Avengers"

I can't decide which screen to look at. The first one is right in my face (ouch my neck), the other too far from me for its pocket-square size. And another so far it's like looking across the row at someone's cel phone in a bout of nosyness - that won't get you anywhere. This three screen option is one kind of 3-D at least. I have plenty of time to decide which screen to look at because the opening few minutes of The Avengers were never its strong suit. 

The sound mixing is atrocious on airplanes. Also I just realized that I'm listening to the movie in a Spanish dub --  Damn you channel 2. I've switched over to English just in time for meaningless human exposition on Earth. It's not like I would have understood the aliens in any language.  

The Tesseract is misbehaving!"

Samuel L Jackson intones this silly sentence for $500k (he's in so little of this I figure each line delivery is worth ½ a mil) because, you know, everyone understands how a cosmic cube should behave so we all get when it's being a naughty teenager.

Cosmic Cube Rebel ! © Nathaniel R

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Brunch w/ Nathaniel

We haven't done a live chat in a month. Today at 1 PM EST you can type at me right here.

Golden Globe-ing It. Live Blog

6:15 Welcome to the ???nth annual Golden Globes Live Blog. Now with more fever, saltines and ginger ale. I am sick so it is a rare Golden Globes without booze. Which should be illegal. (How to survive the Gervais Smug-a-Thon without a Vodka-Thon?) The first vision that greeted me was George Clooney of whom I am currently bored with (It'll pass), the second vision was Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy gabbing silently. At one point Melissa even cupped her hand to tell Octavia a secret.

I would've voted for you since I wasn't nominated!"

Maybe? 

6:31 Jessica Chastain all giggly and Celia-esque while talking to E! reporters. She even did cute little spins and hand flips to demonstrate her Givenchy. But the camera people and booth barkers at E! never ever take their meds. They pan up and down. They shift focus. They put one celeb in a tiny box while another poses. They 360º it. My head spins. And it's not from the sick.

6:39 Sarah Michelle Gellar let her two year old choose her dress. Way to armor yourself against the fashion police reviews. SMG's idea of good date night is IHOP. The more you know! 

6:40 Diane Lane looking like a movie star as usual. A movie star without movies, unfortunately.

6:47 My cat is howling. He is not impressed with celebrities or my sweatshirt and sweatpants and ginger ale ensemble. The other day he stopped in his tracks to watch the TV for a full 10 minutes which has not happened since Microcosmos. What paralyzed him with interest? A PBS show Birds of the God - Birds of Paradise. 

6:49 And no Monty has not told me what he thought of any of the Oscar movies since Bridesmaids He is like the Haley's comet of Oscar pundits.

6:52 Rooney Mara is truly terrible at being interviewed. But then Ryan Seacrest is asking her whether she kept her "intimate piercings" from Dragon Tattoo so it would take a sassy pro to deflect that and own the situation. She merely says 'some of them. I didn't want to have to repierce'. No no noRooney. You don't answer those questions. You deflect that either sassily, mysteriously, flirtatiously or... if all else fails, a  look that could kill. We know you have the latter in your arsenal.

poll by twiigs.com

 7:07 Bérénice Bejo has not seen The Artist in three months. #uselessredcarpetconfessions.

7:09 Commercial break. Starting to feel a bit better. Having fish for dinner. Cat howling to commence again in 5...4...3...

7:15 Charlize Theron needs to give every young starlet lessons in red carpet banter. She is so excellent at it -- even with laryngitis. MORE with Theron, Moore, Pfeiffer, Streep and the lot of 'em.

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"Critics Choice" Live Blog

We're trying 'Cover it Live' for tonight's event. We experimented yesterday and we'll see how it goes on an actual awards night. It allows a bit more interaction with any readers who are watching it as we are. I am a member of the BFCA which runs the "Critics Choice" awards though I am not in LA for the event. Sniffle. Play your violins for me people!

So that you may laugh at me during the evening -- I've never claimed to be good at predicting the BFCA prizes -- my predictions are below the live blog window. 

Will you join us?

My predictions
PICTURE The Artist |  DIRECTOR - The Artist  ACTRESS -Meryl Streep (I doubt they'll risk a third "tie" for Meryl) Viola it is! |  ACTOR - George Clooney | SUPP ACTRESS - Melissa McCarthy Octavia it is! | SUPP ACTOR - Albert Brooks Christopher Plummer it is | ENSEMBLE - The Help (though if it's Bridesmaids I bet supporting actress will be Octavia Spencer instead) | YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS - Shailene Woodley wow, Thomas Horn. |  ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - Midnight in Paris | ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - The Descendants nope, it's Moneyball

I can't remember which of these are presented live and which are off air...
CINEMATOGRAPHY - The Tree of Life (yes, but War Horse also won) | ART DIRECTION -  Hugo |  COSTUME DESIGN - The Artist | EDITING - The Artist nope, it was Dragon Tattoo | MAKEUP - Harry Potter | VISUAL EFFECTS - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
SOUND - Hugo nope, another one for Harry Potter | ANIMATED FEATURE - Adventures of Tintin nope it was Rango | ACTION MOVIE - Drive | COMEDY MOVIE - Bridesmaids | FOREIGN FILM - A Separation |  DOCUMENTARY - Project Nim nope it was George Harrison. They were going full Marty tonight (except for Hugo) | SONG - Life's a Happy Song | SCORE - The Artist (or maybe War Horse. Hmmmm)

Live-Blog: Oscar Bound Actress Roundtable

We've been waiting for this full video of The Hollywood Reporter's Actress Roundtable for weeks (included at bottom of this post). Last year we had fun live-blogging / discussing it, so... "again!".

This year THR assembled from left to right in couch seating: best actress hopefuls Viola Davis, Charlize Theron, Glenn Close, Michelle Williams and best supporting actress hopefuls Octavia Spencer and Carey Mulligan. The directors (we're still waiting on their full video) were on stools. Is this a subconcious move on THR's part? Putting directors on pedestals and actresses on a (casting) couch where they have to worry about how they cross and uncross their bare legs? 

00:01 Damn, starting with a toughie, asking them about performances of their own they were disappointed in. Let's watch the actresses dodge the question! This one goes to Octavia who has the least amount of work to watch, career-wise. She doesn't. She actually sounds kind of grumpy.

02:30 Michelle Williams says she watches some of her work. Naturally she won't name names but implies that she doesn't watch it if she thinks it's not going to be good. Hmmm. When is Michelle not good? But claims she's never had a bad relationship with a character.

I like being directed. I like not being in charge.

And then a cute bit about finally learning to use her computer to research Marilyn. Apparently YouTube helped that performance along. It's not just for bad karaoke and funny cat videos!

06:00 Carey Mulligan describe her Shame character as "kind of a mess..." admits she didn't do much research beyond the very basics of why cutters hurt themselves. Says that self-destructiveness of characters does not bother her off the set.

No, no, no. It's nice. It's quite cathartic; have a good cry, have a good scream, then go home and go to bed.

We love this but it probably won't win her ballot points. Don't they want to think you suffered for it?

08:00 A question about back story as follow up. Of course. Why does everyone need to know everything about backstory all the time. This make-a me crazy. If Tim Burton had made Shame, there would have been a half hour long gothic flashback to describe exactly what happened to the Shame siblings when they were precocious but gloomy kids. Who needs it? You're supposed to engage with movies and interpret them... not have them happen at you like brick walls with cemented feeling.

Carey is so cute as she struggles with this question though. She also has a laugh when talking about how much she fears taking her clothes off to be "sexy". That said, she didn't have trouble with the nudity after absorbing the character -- Steve McQueen had her look at the photography of Francesca Woodman -- and understanding her as someone "who wants to be seen."

10:50 Charlize has a potty mouth.

 ...which makes Octavia laugh. In trying to recover from dropping the F bomb Charlize then says "oh shit. sorry." LOL.

Charlize's sexual education, Viola Davis's lips and Glenn Close's eyes after the jump

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