Feb 23
Amazing opening!!! That was beyond AWSOME!!!!!! I
Feb 23
Feb 23
Oscars 2009: Slumdog Millionaire, Best Film
What a night for Danny Boyle and crew. Wow. I’ve slightly lost count but I think that’s eight Oscars out of a possible nine for Slumdog Millionaire.
Producer Christian Colson does the speechifying honours for this one, thanking the usual all and sundry, with the cast and crew all on stage with him (pictured) - including someone’s kid, a child of maybe 10.
A huge result tonight for British cinema, with Kate Winslet‘s victory added to the runaway success of Slumdog.
Oscars 2009: Sean Penn takes Best Actor
What an opening line to his acceptance speech – “You commie homo-loving sons of guns“, says Sean Penn, taking the award for his portrayal of gay-rights activist and politician Harvey Milk in Milk.
He also gets another couple of good lines in – first he acknowledges that he sometimes “makes it hard for you to appreciate me“, a reference to his sporadic assaults on paparazzi.
Then he becomes the first winner this year to go overtly political in his speech, slating anti-gay marriage campaigners.
He comes across pretty well, to be honest. Rather assumed he’d be an unbearable luvvie. But he seems all right.
Oscars 2009: Kate Winslet takes Best Actress
She’s got it! After what felt like an eternity of former winners telling us how great all the nominees are, they open the envelope and – yes, it’s Kate Winslet.
And her speech is pretty sensible. She didn’t have a complete meltdown, anyway. She is panting like she’s just run three miles to get to the stage, but most of the words she’s saying are at least coherent and strung together in grammatically accurate sentences.
Called all her fellow nominees “goddesses”, which was a little over the top, but had quite a good line when she said “I don’t think any of us can even believe we’re in a category with Meryl Streep“. Streep in the audience doing a good magnanimous-in-defeat face.
Oscars 2009: Danny Boyle takes Best Director
Told you. Well, that’s been coming. Best Director award goes to Danny Boyle (pictured) for Slumdog Millionaire, which – weirdly, for a low-budget film set in Mumbai and only partly in English – felt inevitable.
He comes bouncing on stage, explaining that he promised his kids when they were young that if he ever won an Oscar he would accept it in the spirit of Tigger out of Winnie The Pooh. Rather sweet.
Then he becomes the first winner this year to go overtly political in his speech, slating anti-gay marriage campaigners.
He comes across pretty well, to be honest. Rather assumed he’d be an unbearable luvvie. But he seems all right.
Here are the winners, as they are announced, at the 81st Academy Awards, which are being held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on 22 February.
Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Also nominated: Amy Adams – Doubt; Viola Davis – Doubt; Taraji P Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Best original screenplay: Milk
Also nominated: Happy-Go-Lucky; Wall-E; In Bruges; Frozen River
Best adapted screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Doubt; Frost/Nixon; The Reader
Best animated feature film: Wall-E
Also nominated: Bolt; Kung Fu Panda
Best animated short film: La Maison en Petits Cubes
Also nominated: Lavatory – Lovestory; Oktapodi; Presto; This Way Up
Art direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Duchess; Revolutionary Road
Costume design: The Duchess
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Australia; Milk; Revolutionary Road
Make-up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Reader
Best live action short film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Also nominated: Auf der Strecke (On The Line); Manon on the Asphalt; New Boy; The Pig
Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Josh Brolin – Milk; Robert Downey Jr – Tropic Thunder; Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt; Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
Best documentary feature: Man on Wire
Also nominated: The Betrayal; Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; Trouble The Water
Best documentary short subject: Smile Pinki
Also nominated: The Conscience of Nhem En; The Final Inch; The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306
Visual effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Iron Man
Sound editing: The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Iron Man; Wanted; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E
Sound mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Wanted; Wall-E
Film editing:Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Frost/Nixon; Milk
Best original score: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Defiance; Milk; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E
Best original song: Jai Ho – Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Down To Earth – Wall-E; O Saya – Slumdog Millionaire
Best foreign language film: Departures – Japan
Also nominated: Revanche – Austria; The Class – France; The Baader Meinhof Complex – Germany; Waltz With Bashir – Israel
Best director: Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Stephen Daldry – The Reader; David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon; Gus Van Sant – Milk
Best actress: Kate Winslet – The Reader
Also nominated: Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie – Changeling; Melissa Leo – Frozen River; Meryl Streep – Doubt
Best actor: Sean Penn – Milk
Also nominated: Richard Jenkins – The Visitor; Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon; Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader
Feb 23
Here are some of the most notable quotes from the 81st Academy Awards, which are being held at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.
I’d be lying if I haven’t made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror and this would have been a shampoo bottle. Well it’s not a shampoo bottle now.
Kate Winslet picking up her best actress Oscar.
My kids are too old to remember this now but, when they were much younger, I swore to them if this miracle ever happened, I would receive it in the spirit of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, and that’s what that was.
Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle on bouncing up and down as he accepted his best director award.
This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath’s quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here, his peers within an industry he so loved.
Heath Ledger’s father, Kim, picking up his late son’s best supporting actor Oscar for The Dark Knight.
There are certain places you never imagine standing – the moon, the South Pole, the Miss World podium and here.
Slumdog Millionaire writer Simon Beaufoy on winning best adapted screenplay.
If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he’d want me to say to all those gay and lesbian kids out there tonight – who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government, or by their families – that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures that are valued.
Winning original screenplay writer Dustin Lance Black on his story’s protagonist, Harvey Milk.
It’s not going to be 45 seconds, I can say that right now. Has anybody ever feinted here because I might be the first one.
Best supporting actress Penelope Cruz on suggested acceptance speech lengths.
The Academy loves to salute range… Robert Downey Jnr in Tropic Thunder. Robert, who’s an American, played an Australian playing an African-American. Nominated. Whereas me, I’m an Australian who played an Australian in a movie called Australia. Hosting.
Australia star and Oscars host Hugh Jackman.
We don’t see this world most of the time – we get a glimpse of it in England. But after, I’ll be going home, having a cup of tea and we’re looking forward to that just as much as we’re looking forward to tonight.
Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle on enjoying the best of both worlds.
It’s bittersweet. I said to myself I’d rather have Loki for another two years than an Oscar and I told her that. But she stayed as long as she could, you know
The Wrestler star and best actor nominee Mickey Rourke on losing his dog.
Feb 18
SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER. THESE ARE THE VOYAGES OF THE STAR SHIP ENTERPRISE. ITS FIVE-YEAR MISSION: TO EXPLORE STRANGE NEW WORLDS; TO SEEK OUT NEW LIFE AND NEW CIVILIZATIONS; TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE.
After 5 television series – The Original Series (1966 – 1969), The next Generation (1987 – 1994), Deep Space Nine (1993 – 1999), Voyager (1995 – 2001) and Enterprise (2001 – 2005), and no less then 10 feature films – The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, The Undiscovered Country, Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis, we will finally be able to return to the fantastic science fiction world of Star Trek this spring, with the release of the 11th motion picture, simply named Star Trek. When you think you have seen it all, Star Trek will, all in tradition of many other sequel films at this moment, bring us back all the way before the beginning.
In the 23rd Century, Earth is a member of the United Federation of Planets, a peaceful alliance of democratic worlds that runs a Starfleet of space vessels to patrol the final frontier of space. Young cadet James T. Kirk enrolls at Starfleet Academy, unknowingly starting a dangerous and exciting career that will bring him in deep space, and eventually will lead to meeting that person from a complete unknown civilization that will become his soul mate: Spock. Together they will embark in a battle against the Romulans from the future who are interfering with history and time.
Star Trek is in no way a remake of any of the previously released films. Star Trek: The Motion Picture starts where the series left off. And Captain James T. Kirk is promoted to Admiral and Chief of Starfleet Operations. The 2009 movie Star Trek goes way back in history. It even goes further back than the first aired television episode The Man Trap. How ever, this doesn’t mean we won’t see original characters back in this 11th episode of the Star Trek movie series. Thanks to the ingenious time paradox story, we will be encountering the original Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy who was responsible for giving life to the very first Spock back in 1966, and Captain Pike, played by Bruce Greenwood, who was the very first commander of the Star Ship Enterprise.
Full synopsis of this latest Star Trek adventure is still an unexplored area, but if we can believe the history of the legendary series and films, and the released trailer, it promises to be a new fantastic adventure for the real ‘Trekkie’, a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time. Star Trek introduces the original characters of James Kirk, Spock, Doctor McCoy, Scotty, Uhura and Hikaru Sulu. Directed by J. J. Abrams, and starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana and Leonard Nimoy, will open in theaters in May 2009.
Feb 13
VALENTINE: See this amazing love from above gallery:
A heart-shaped coroal reef in Australia has been photographed by satellites, helicopters and planes.
Is this the most romantic garden in the world? The heart hedges are located in the North Rhine-Westphalia, Waltrop in Germany.
Tupai Island in French Polynesia would be the perfect destination for Valentines Day as it is shaped as a perfect heart.
A field in the shape of a heart in Germany gives farmers new hope for love.
A heart-shaped island in Walchensee, Germany makes the small Bavarian town a romantic desitnation.
Feb 12
How often have you found yourself in a room with a drop dead gorgeous stranger – knowing full well that an opportunity like this might never come again – and never made a move?
So how about this for an idea? Instead of sighing and wistfully thinking about what could have been – do something in 2009 to get over your flirt-phobia!
1. Get your flirting mojo into overdrive. Learn to collect confidence points and flirt at any and every opportunity! Surround yourself with fabulously supportive wing-women who know you’re on a mission to flirt and will back you up at every turn.
2. Prepare your station ladies! Have all your ammo ready before you go into flirt mode and be ready for all and any occasions. That means accessories, grooming, styling, outfit, make-up, hair, hygiene and of course – to-die-for lingerie.
3. Step into the flirt zone. Once you’re out and about, flirting opportunities will start presenting themselves left right and centre. You need to be on high alert and ready to act immediately!
4. Don’t waste your time on standoffish, cold flirts, go for warm cuddly flirts.
5. Lose the attitude. Get rid of it! Men don’t like it – especially when you’re so haughty – it terrifies them! They have a hard enough time coming up and saying hello let alone putting up with your attitude. Why confuse him with your “hard to get” signals?
6. So you’ve met someone you like – well let them know! Bang them over the head with it! Keep eye contact with him and keep him involved. Men have very short attention spans so practice repeating the same moves over. Every once in a while lick your lips.
7. Yes we know the weather is crap. Yes we know the country is in recession, but ditch the glum-fest because while a radiant smile draws like a magnet, a sour down turned mouth will do the opposite.
8. Rewire your brain – this is the year when dreams become realities. Keep a vision of how your hot new life will look and conjure it up every time you’re having a bad moment.
9. Leave the house and always look like you’re ready to party. Or at least have a chat!
10. Smile. Smile. Smile!
Feb 12
Thought you knew everything there is to know about Valentine’s Day? Then think again! We give you ten weird and wacky facts about the day that strikes fear into the heart of singletons and glee into those in couples.
1. Teachers receive the most Valentine’s Day cards, closely followed by children, mothers, wives and partner.
2. Penicillin, a popular treatment for STDs such as syphilis, was introduced to the world on February 14, 1929.
3. If you’re single don’t despair. You can celebrate Singles Awareness Day (SAD) instead. Meant as an alternative to Valentine’s Day, the holiday is for single people to celebrate or to commiserate in their single status. A common greeting on this day is “Happy SAD!”
4. Or you could pop over to Finland where Valentine’s Day is called Ystävänpäivä, which translates into “Friend’s day”. This day is more about remembering all your friends, not only your loved ones.
5. Durex claims that condom sales are highest around Valentine’s Day – 20 percent to 30 percent higher than usual.
6. More home pregnancy testing kits are sold in March than in any other month.
7. About 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year. This makes it the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
8. About 3 per cent of pet owners will give Valentine’s Day gifts to their pets.
9. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their Valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. Nowadays to wear your heart on your sleeve means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
10. In Victorian times it was considered bad luck to sign a Valentine’s Day card.
Feb 12
For the first time in history (at least publicly known) two satellites collided in Space. This space accident was happening 485miles over Siberia already on Tuesday.
The US satellite is owned by Satellite phone service provider Iridium. The Russian satellite is said to be not in use anymore.
The crash generated a huge cloud of debris and it is expected to take weeks until the “dust settles” again. NASA says that there is no risk to the ISS right now. Space agencies are tracking the debris of the satellite crash and hope most of it burns in the earth atmosphere.
The orbit around earth is already pretty full with satellites and with debris. At some point they really need to clean up.
More details on BBC News and Reuters. See also the Iridium site.
Feb 02
the world’s best passenger complaint letter?
Here is that complaint letter sent to Sir Richard Branson, which is currently being emailed globally and is considered by many to be the world’s funniest passenger complaint letter.
Dear Mr Branson
REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008
I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.
Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at thehands of your corporation.
Look at this Richard. Just look at it:
I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?
You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in:
I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn’t custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.
Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.
I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.
Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this:
Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It’s mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.
Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.
By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycaemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it’s baffling presentation:
It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.
I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.
Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on:
I apologise for the quality of the photo, it’s just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson’s face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel:
Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the gruelling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I’d had enough. I was the hungriest I’d been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.
My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations:
Yes! It’s another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.
Richard…. What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I’d done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your baaji-mustard.
So that was that Richard. I didn’t eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.
As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.
Yours Sincererly
XXXX
- Paul Charles, Virgin’s Director of Corporate Communications, confirmed that Sir Richard Branson had telephoned the author of the letter and had thanked him for his “constructive if tongue-in-cheek” email. Mr Charles said that Virgin was sorry the passenger had not liked the in-flight meals which he said was “award-winning food which is very popular on our Indian routes.”
Anyway, Since this story got heavy coverage on the BBC 10 o’clock news. Some have suggested this WCRS creative Oli Beale’s six-page rant about the quality of food he experienced on a Virgin Atlantic flight is a clever stunt.
The letter prompted Richard Branson to call Beale personally, leading to acres of press coverage. Brand Republic has heard that the letter is in fact real, but is it generating positive PR for the Virgin brand, as some have argued?
