James Ivory & the controversy that won't go away!

by Murtada

If you thought that after the Oscars you’d never hear about Call Me By Your Name, think again. The movie is now out on DVD but that is not why it’s in the headlines once again. Oscar winning screenwriter James Ivory would just not let his displeasure with the non-nudity in the film die. We are all for a true legend like Ivory to say whatever the fuck he wants, whenever he wants. So we are all in for his recent interview that's making the rounds now.

In the CMBYN cultural wars of last Oscar season there are two camps. The first think that it lessens the power of its story by shying away from explicit nudity in its sex scenes. The second think that was the right aesthetic choice for the story and that the film is not “coy” because it shows Armie Hammer wiping cum from his chest. This is a short and reductive way of briefly explaining the different POVs; each camp of course has more nuance...

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Ranking the Oscar Clips

by Ben Miller

Oscar clips are a fun wrinkle of a ceremony.  Who could forget Cate Blanchett’s reaction to her Elizabeth: The Golden Age clip?  The actors and actresses can seem mortified or proud of anywhere inbetween, and it’s part of the appeal of the clips.  The clips preceding each of the categories ranged from brilliant to downright weird.  Let’s rank them 20-1…

The Weird

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Red Carpet Arrivals

The Oscars start at 8:00 but until then arrival madness...

• Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino were talking Times Up on the red carpet. My mind drifted to Marilyn Monroe, who they played together in a TV movie. Marilyn endured constant sexual harassment and I think she'd be proud of them.

• Adam Rippon wore a harness to the Oscars, doing his part to queer things up. We have a number of LGBTQ people / films up for Oscars tonight: Dee Rees and James Ivory (both in Adapted Screenplay), the Chilean nominatee A Fantastic Woman, and the Best Pic nominee Call Me By Your Name, and Rachel Morrison, the first woman nominated in Cinematography. More after the jump...

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"Who are you wearing?" ... "Timothée Chalamet"

James Ivory wearing Timothée Chalamet's face on his custom tux. James Ivory has already won.  

A quick look back at the Oscar Nominee Luncheon

by Nathaniel R

photo via Rebecca Keegan

The Oscar Nominee Luncheon -- which we must belatedly now obsess over -- is one of the greatest Oscar traditions, for a variety of reasons which have nothing to do with lunching. One of the secrets to its wonderfulness is possibly that it's not telecast so it still maintains some kind of insider cachet. Nevertheless the media are invited so it's not "private" per se. And even if it were, in our social media age the stars serve as their own kind of media outlet, too, with their selfie madness...

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