mahna mahna (link-link-lee-link-link) mahna manha (link-link-lee-link) ♫

Stale Popcorn on the Giant Face of Chris Pine and weird twin hands on the This Means War poster.
Empire Ken Watanabe is in discussions for a role in the live action adaptation of Akira. Now, y'all know how much I hate the future existence of the movie but casting one Asian actor is not going to help. Just like the decision not to change the character names this will only remind people that this movie was super racist in its casting and opted out of Asian actors in the lead Asian roles.

Awards Daily Sasha is sticking by Viola Davis (The Help) for a Best Actress win for now, despite the people screaming "Streep Streep Streep"
The Wow Report the cast of Absolutely Fabulous in 2011.
New York Times 101 Notable Books of 2011. Whoa, get reading, you!
Twitch makes a plea for action flick Fast Five for Best Editing. For your consideration... 

80s Flashback
Press Play is looking at movies about grief in a very personal way. I loveRunning on Empty (1988) so much so I'm always glad to see a piece celebrating its emotional potency.
Between the Pages a Little Shop of Horrrors Cake. Wow. I think it's suppertime.

Muppet Mania
Aint It Cool I suspect this total love mixed with declining opinion will start happening more and more withThe Muppets (2011) but the total love you first feel makes it well worth seeing.
Gold Derby Can the Muppets finally win an Oscar? They've been waiting even longer than Glenn Close ;) since their first nomination came in 1979.  

Slate on the origins of the Muppets catchy signature nonsense "Mahna-Mahna" 
In Contention the sound of the Muppets. 

The Covers The Dreamers And Me

[Editor's note: It's Muppet Week! I asked  Team Experience to share their favorite Muppet memories. Like JA, I'm 1000% in love with this 1979 Oscar Nominee for Best Song. Feel free to sing along. - Nathaniel] 

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JA from MNPP here. Let's just get this outta the way right up front - "The Rainbow Connection" is my favorite song of all time. It's also part of one of my earliest memories, and definitely my very first movie memory - I couldn't have been more than three or four and I'd been dropped off at a babysitter's house for the first time ever while my parents took off to do god knows what. I was miserable, horrified, I distinctly remember the babysitter staring at me with terror in her eyes as I bawled like a maniac (so much time has passed and the only thing that's changed is now it's my boyfriend's face giving me that look).

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But it all changed as soon as the babysitter turned on the TV and whaddya know, there was The Muppet Movie just starting. Some little green frog was warbling his little tune on his little banjo on his little log in his little swamp, and magic - Muppet and movie alike - carried me away, and I've never looked back. When my parents showed up before the movie was over I refused to leave until it ended - a cinemaniac (with a secret felt fetish, shh) was born.

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Thirty years or so have passed since that life-defining moment, and  I will still break into immediate awestruck tears when I hear it. Lines like "I've heard it too many times to ignore it. It's something that I'm s'posed to be..." actually honestly helped me through the coming out process in my early 20s. The debt of gratitude for forming a basic piece of who I am - and a really basic decent part, I think I can say truthfully - that I owe to Jim Henson and songwriters Paul Williams and Kennth Ascher is beyond measure.

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So with The Muppets out in theaters this week, I figured we could take a look back at that song and the thirty years that it's been a living breathing beautiful thing in our lives. There are literally dozens of these to pick from but here are my five of my favorite covers!

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Curio: Muppet Madness

Alexa here. Lately I've been busying myself by introducing my daughter to the Muppets, in hopes that the new installment will pan out and there will be more Muppet fun to come. (So far, Miss Piggy's Esther Williams routine and the Steve Martin hosting with balloons and banjo appear to be her favorite moments.) My attempts to find her a reasonably priced Miss Piggy doll have been thwarted, due to the lack of merchandising out there; maybe Disney is taking an uncharacteristic wait-and-see approach? In the meantime, here are some cool indie designs that fill the Muppet merchandise void.

Fabulous retro Muppet concert posters by Michael De Pippo.

Ever-prolific Alex Kittle does a great Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem gig poster.Click for more, including Miss Piggy with donut...

Click to read more ...

The Adventures of Linklink

You may have heard that Ricky Gervais will be hosting the Golden Globes again. I don't have the stomach to give this its own post but let it suffice to say what I already said on twitter... Gervais smug superiority is so offputting. You have to back that shit up and was Gervais the funniest best awards show host ever? No. 

Link Time
Tom the Dancing Bug on Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin
The Advocate fun interview with Dylan McDermott on American Horror Story, nude scenes and sexuality and Steel Magnolias
Ad Age wowee but those Oscar ads are expensive. $1.6 million for 30 second of air time please. 
The Playlist the competing Linda Lovelace porn star biopics. It's Amanda Seyfried vs. Malin Akerman. You'd think that was an easy call but for the news that Sharon Stone will play Mama Lovelace in the Akerman version. Sharon Stone!
Empire Will Amy Adams sign on to co-star with Clint Eastwood in The Curve, a father/daughter drama? He plays an aging baseball scout. We're betting that he won't be portrayed as indelicately as the "they're fossils!" approach in Moneyball. (A film we love, don't misunderstand. It's just hard on the old scouts.)
BuzzFeed 63 Reasons why Bradley Cooper is not the "Sexiest Man Alive". No matter what People magazine says. 
Speaking of Bradley Cooper...

In Ye Olden Times when I used to watch Inside the Actors Studio I couldn't help but make immediate "you'll never make it!" assumptions about many of the audience members seeking professional advice. So it's totally crazy to see an actual future star asking one. 

Puppet Mania
Flickr Muppet illustrations covering the whole alphabet
YouTube Clever Inglourious Basterds/Fantastic Mr Fox mashup

Finally, Drew McWeeney at HitFix had his son Toshi interview Kermit and Miss Piggy on the eve of the release of The Muppets. So cute...

It's a great angle for an interview since The Muppets biggest marketing muscle might well be partents taking their kids who missed out on the Muppet phenomenon to "meet" them on the big screen.

Well, That Was Fast... Billy Crystal To Host the Oscars

Strike while the iron is... short-circuiting? The Brett Ratner (producer) / Eddie Murphy (host) Oscar telecast resignations have been the talk of the town... make that both towns and February's Oscar night was starting to seem like an impending disaster. 

Despite a fun-to-think-about Muppets Oscar campaign*, many AMPAS voters and Oscar fans will get their wish and see the return of Billy Crystal. He's had the gig eight times in the past (1990-1993, 1997-1998, 2000 and  2004) but apparently eight is not enough. Billy is a good host but we just hope this doesn't mean yet more changes to the show. The last time Billy Crystal spoke about hosting he said he'd return only if they made certain (unspecified) changes to the broadcast. (Sigh) The Oscar ceremony is not broke. It just always thinks itself to be. It's like a beautiful girl who looks in the mirror and only sees her flaws. The only "fixing" the ceremony needs is some good old fashioned self-esteem. 

* I was just about to say that we'll still see Muppets on Oscar night, never fear -- I mean they've done the show several times before -- when I saw this tweet.

So now I don't need to. Perhaps this is the best of both worlds!