Month: February 2012

Crystal helps improve Oscar viewership

NEW YORK (AP) — The return of Billy Crystal helped boost viewership for the Academy Awards but not enough to prevent a cultural oddity: The Oscars weren’t even the most-watched awards show on television this month.

The Nielsen Co. estimated Monday that 39.3 million people watched the Oscars on ABC Sunday night, up from the 37.9 million viewers during the much-panned 2011 show where James Franco and Anne Hathaway shared hosting duties.

Crystal was called in after original host Eddie Murphy pulled out. It was the ninth time Crystal has done that job and he delivered, despite worries that best picture winner “The Artist” would not be much of an audience draw.

Nielsen said 39.9 million people watched the Grammy Awards on CBS on Feb. 12. That huge audience was likely due to the popularity of big winner Adele and curiosity about how Grammy producers would address the death of singer Whitney Houston the day before the show.

It was only the second time since the two events were televised that the Grammys earned a bigger audience than the Oscars. After the Super Bowl, the Oscars are frequently the second most-watched TV event of the year.

In 1984, when Michael Jackson was the big winner at the Grammys, the show had 51.7 million viewers. The Oscars that year, when “Terms of Endearment” won best picture, had 42.1 million viewers, Nielsen said.

The social media analysis company Trendrr estimated that there were some 4.2 million examples of social media action during the Oscars on Sunday — such as tweets on Twitter and posts or likes on Facebook.

That more than doubled the 2.02 million estimate from last year’s Oscars, Trendrr said. It illustrates the growth in social media as well as the tendency of people to comment online with their friends as they share the experience of watching on TV, said Chris Thonis, spokesman for Trendrr.

Still, it paled in comparison with the 17.47 million examples of social media activity during the Super Bowl earlier this month, and the 17.12 million for the Grammys, he said.

The Grammys have become more of a performance show than an awards show in recent years, increasing their television ratings and giving viewers plenty to talk about.

“There were great story lines for the Grammys this year versus the Oscars, which didn’t have as many story lines,” Thonis said.

Dujardin sorry for Oscar F-bomb

Not that he needed to, but Jean Dujardin has apologized for swearing in French as he picked up his Best Actor Oscar on Sunday night.

The French star took gold at the glitzy ceremony in Los Angeles for his role in silent movie The Artist, seeing off competition from George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman and Demian Bichir.

Dujardin was ecstatic as he made his acceptance speech and he invoked his The Artist character George Valentin to yell exclamations in French, including a curse word which is the equivalent of dropping the ‘f-bomb’.

He was asked about his swearing during a backstage press conference and Dujardin smiled as he admitted uttering the naughty word in front of millions of TV viewers and apologized for his behaviour, telling reporters, “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

Few inspired moments during predictable Oscars

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nostalgia ruled at the Oscars, with the classic film homages “The Artist” and “Hugo” dominating with five awards each, Meryl Streep winning her first best-actress prize in nearly three decades and longtime favorite Billy Crystal returning as host.

It was a rather safe, predictable affair all around, with the winners who’ve heard their names throughout awards season being called up on stage one last time Sunday night. “The Artist,” a black-and-white love letter to silent film, won best picture, best director for France’s Michel Hazanavicius and best actor for Jean Dujardin as an actor who finds his career in danger with the arrival of the talkies. It also earned prizes for costume design and original score.

“Hugo,” Martin Scorsese’s 3-D mixture of family adventure and plea for film preservation, collected its prizes in the technical categories: cinematography, art direction, sound mixing, sound editing and visual effects.

Streep, the most celebrated actress of our generation, found herself in the unusual position of playing the sentimental, underdog favorite. Many (including your friend Dan Reynish) had chosen Viola Davis as the likely favorite to win best actress for her formidable portrayal of a maid in the 1960s South in “The Help.” But Streep, who’s been nominated more than any other actor in Oscar history — 17 times — hadn’t won since 1982’s “Sophie’s Choice.”

The glittering crowd in the theater (and journalists in the press room alike) erupted in gasps and cheers when Streep’s name was called for her uncanny performance as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.” Streep was quick to thank her longtime makeup artist J. Roy Helland, who was also a winner Sunday night, for transforming her for the past 37 years.

Asked backstage whether she might celebrate with a couple of whiskeys — Thatcher’s favorite drink — Streep deadpanned: “I’m going to start with a couple.”

The energy she brought to the show was a rarity. Sure, there was an inadvertent F-bomb from T.J. Martin, one of the directors of the high-school football film “Undefeated,” which won best documentary feature. The women of “Bridesmaids” continued the “Scorsese!” drinking game they started a few weeks ago at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, taking a swig whenever someone said the director’s name.

Bret McKenzie of “Flight of the Conchords” had a nice original-song win for the hilarious “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” — but even that was no big shocker in a field of just two nominees. And it was a pleasant surprise seeing Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall win film editing for the beautifully fluid “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” on a night when “Hugo” was expectedly (and deservedly) winning so many technical awards.

But for the most part, the Oscars were more of the same. Christopher Plummer, who’s won every award and critics’ group accolade imaginable, earned his long overdue Oscar for supporting actor for the romantic comedy “Beginners,” in which he plays a 75-year-old man who finally comes out as gay. At 82, he’s the oldest acting winner ever.

“You’re only two years older than me, darling,” Plummer said on stage, admiring his golden trophy. “Where have you been all my life?”

His supporting-actress counterpart, Octavia Spencer, also has been a repeated winner throughout awards season. She plays a sassy, subversive maid who dares speak her mind in “The Help,” and drew a spontaneous standing ovation as she walked on stage for her tearful acceptance.

Afterward, she told reporters: “I was just trying not to fall down ’cause I had an incident where I fell at an awards show.”

“This is one of those evenings in my life that I’ll never forget,” she added.

Crystal, overseeing hosting duties for the ninth time, was a familiar, reliable replacement after Eddie Murphy stepped down in solidarity with Brett Ratner, who was supposed to produce the show but resigned after making a gay slur.

The comedian trotted out all the usual routines we’ve come to expect from him, including being magically inserted into the action in best-picture nominees and blockbusters alike. He also did his usual song-and-dance routine with musical bits about each of the nine films competing for the night’s top prize.

“You didn’t think I was not going to do this, did you?” Crystal asked, as if acknowledging how reheated the gag was.

Even though the ceremony itself ran just 3 hours 13 minutes — which is comparatively short — it seemed a whole lot longer with the inclusion of comic bits that dragged and felt like filler. The normally solid Christopher Guest mockumentary crew pretended to be a focus group picking apart “The Wizard of Oz,” for example. Co-presenters Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow bickered while pretending to make a documentary; it had its moments only because Downey is so charismatic.

But more often, we had montages of nominees describing the movies they love best on a night when the quality of films and the love of a shared moviegoing experience should be self-evident. At the end of an awards season in which films about the silent era dominated, we were repeatedly told how we should feel.

Silence is golden for ‘The Artist’

LOS ANGELES — Silence is golden! The Artist is the best picture winner at the 84th Academy Awards, making it the first silent film to win this award since the very first Oscar ceremony in 1929.

Taking the top prize at the end of a long night meant that a co-production of France and Belgium won. Yet it was also the only one of the nine best picture nominees that had been filmed entirely in Los Angeles. The Artist, shot in black-and-white, re-creates the lives of silent cinema in Hollywood in the 1920s, just as the arrival of sound threatened careers of many stars.

Formidable! Jean Dujardin plays the silent film star who gives The Artist its title and he triumphed as best actor, pushing aside early favourite and Hollywood superstar George Clooney for the Oscar.

“I love this country!” Dujardin enthused at the Kodak Theatre before ending his acceptance speech with a rousing explosion of joyous French phrases, which he said was what his character would have said if he was able to speak more than two words on-screen.

If Dujardin’s win was expected, Meryl Streep’s was not when she took best actress for The Iron Lady. She beat out Viola Davis, a classy nominee who gave her rival a big hug before Streep went up on stage. Streep, who took home her third Oscar from 17 career nominations, half joked that she figures that “half of America” would have let out a big sigh when they heard her name called because they have seen her before. “But whatever!” Streep said with a mischievous grin.

Overall, many films were chosen for the Oscar party, a lot more than usual this year. Going into Oscar night, 18 feature films had at least two nominations in the 20 categories devoted to feature films — and another 23 had one nomination each.

But a lot fewer were taken to the podium, of course. The winners list was reduced to 11: The Artist, Hugo, The Help, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, The Iron Lady, Rango, Beginners, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Muppets, Rango and A Separation. More critically, only three were multiple winners. The Artist earned five Oscars ˜ with the big one included. That meant it is tied with Hugo, which also won five times. The Iron Lady won two awards.

Oscar also has a new motto: Better late than never. At 82, Canadian legend Christopher Plummer is now the oldest winner in an acting category in Oscar history of the Academy Awards.

The graceful yet acerbic and funny Plummer won the best supporting actor Oscar for playing a gay man coming out of the closet in the film Beginners. His nomination was the only one Beginners got — but Plummer made it pay handsomely. “You’re only two years older than me, darling,” Plummer said as he cradled his trophy. “Where have you been all my life?” Plummer is a second-time nominee but only a first-time winner. He had said before the Oscar show start that it was time to win because “there isn’t much more of me left.”

Backstage, Plummer was wearing his Order of Canada pin on his velvet tuxedo. He was, he said, “representing my country here.” He also responded to a Sun Media question saying that an Oscar at this point in his life is “la creme on top” like the topping for a dessert. And he promised to keep on working and would die “on stage or on set.”

Meanwhile, the Oscars are not just politically correct, they are intelligent. Octavia Spencer is now an Academy Award winner for brilliantly playing a black maid who raises white people’s children in the 1960s drama The Help.

Spencer demonstrated that, even when it is expected, an Oscar win can drive the winner to distraction. “I’m freaking out!” a tearful Spencer said on stage at the Kodak Theatre as the audience burst into rapturous applause at the announcement of one of the first big awards. “Thank you Academy for putting me with the hottest guy in the room,” Spencer said as she clutched her golden statuette.

Spencer’s win comes in a long and distinguished line of African-American winners. Hattie McDaniel broke the Academy Award colour barrier in the acting categories 72 Oscars ago by being the first black to even be nominated, for playing Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939). Organizers forced her to sit in the back. But, when McDaniel won, it made history.

Canada, meanwhile, suffered a series of defeats. As expected, the Iranian film A Separation won as best foreign language film. It is thought to be good politics for Americans to choose it, because — as director Asghar Farhadi said in his acceptance speech — it means that people will say Iran and refer to the country’s history of “glorious culture” and not political conflict. That put Montreal filmmaker Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar on the sidelines, although Falardeau has repeatedly said he would enjoy the Oscar ride and that his film is already a winner for its international attention and sales.

In the animated short category, two Canadian films were in contention. But both titles, Dimanche-Sunday and Wild Life, lost to an American entry, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which the filmmakers themselves said was made “by two swamp rats from Louisiana.”

In the two screenplay categories, things unfolded as expected with Alexander Payne’s The Descendants winning for best adapted screenplay and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris earning the award for best original screenplay. Allen, of course, was not there to take home his trophy — as usual.

Oscar also loves to tease. While it turned into the night of The Artist, the first two awards of the night both went to Martin Scorsese’s lavish Hugo, a love letter to the history of cinema.

Hugo, a technical marvel, ended up winning a clutch of craft categories, including for best cinematography, art direction, sound mixing and sound editing and visual effects.

The Artist took the Oscar for best score. That meant that a Canadian composer — three-time Oscar winner Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) — failed to add to his haul. This year, he was nominated for Hugo.

The makeup award — no surprise — went to The Iron Lady for the transformation of Streep into former British prime minister Maggie Thatcher.

The Oscar in the best documentary feature category — which went to the high school football movie Undefeated — also triggered the second F-bomb in Oscar history, this time from one of the eager young men involved, T.J. Martin. Last year, best supporting actress winner Melissa Leo dropped the first one. Martin apologized backstage for the slip-up, which he put down to enthusiasm.

Much cleaner was Gore Verbinski’s sweet acceptance speech for Rango, cited as the best animated feature. He admitted that animated movies are made by adults acting like children.