If there was an Academy Awards ceremony for best YouTube mashup, this would be the main attraction. After all of the Oscar hubbub, we’d be remiss not to show this mix of “Argo” and “Home Alone.”
(h/t bobbyfinger)
Argo still a no-go in Iran
“Argo” may have won acclaim from critics, audiences and now the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - but many in Iran remain unimpressed with the film. Set during the turbulent post-revolution era in Iran, the Iranian government was initially provoked by the film for its portrayal of the country, but with time, more Iranians have been able to see the movie and react.
“I am secular, atheist and not pro-regime but I think the film ‘Argo’ has distorted history and insulted Iranians,” said Hossain, a cafe owner worried about business because of customers’ lack of cash in a sanctions-battered economy. “For me, it wasn’t even a good thriller.”
And further reaction from the ground in Iran:
“I did not enjoy seeing my fellow countrymen and women insulted,” said Farzaneh Haji, an educated homemaker and fan of romantic movies who was 18 at the time of the revolution. “The men then were not all bearded and fanatical. To be anti-American was a fashionable idea among young people across the board. Even non-bearded and U.S.-educated men and women were against American imperialism.”
Photo: Keith Bernstein / Warner Bros
A joke too far: Last night, the Onion tweeted a tasteless joke at the expense of Quvenzhane Wallis, the youngest-ever Best Actress nominee, accusing her of being a less-than-agreeable person with a less-than-agreeable term.
Onion CEO Steve Hannah sent out an apology above, but the attempted joke comes amid rising criticism that the Oscars trumpeted sexism during the ceremony, with a focus paid largely on host Seth MacFarlane’s quips.
Photo: The Onion, h/t to kateoplis
“Argo, “Life of Pi” and Jennifer Lawrence: The Oscars have come to a close, the after-parties dying down and the realization of victory (and defeat) settling in. What did we learn?
“Argo” could win Best Picture without a Best Director nomination (the first to do so since “Driving Miss Daisy).
Jennifer Lawrence can do wrong. Stumbling up the stairs to receive her Best Actress award, Lawrence shrugged off help and brought herself back together.
“Life of Pi” is your new Oscar champ - at least if total awards count. Bouyed by a bevy of techincal awards and director Ang Lee’s victory, the film won four awards, topping “Argo” and “Les Misérables,” at three apiece.
A song titled “We Saw Your Boobs” is a juvenile cheap shot - particularly on the grand stage of the Oscars.
At the end of the day, how would you rate the Oscars - a thumbs up or a thumbs down?
Photos: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
The Oscars have nearly begun!
We have you covered, from the red carpet arrivals, an early preview of the night’s ceremonies and predictions from movie expert Glenn Whipp.
So keep tabs on our all-encompassing coverage, and most importantly, kick back and enjoy the tribune to some of the past year’s best films!
Photos: Joe Klamar / AFP / Getty Images, Jason Merritt / Getty Images, Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images
Oscars 2013: It’s not too late to fill out our Academy Award ballot, with just a few hours left until the 85th Academy Awards. Head over to our play-at-home ballot, save your picks, print it out and see how correct your predictions turn out to be!
From the Archives (March 26, 1958): From left, John Wayne, Maurice Chevalier and Anthony Quinn share a laugh with producer Jerry Wald at rehearsals for the Academy Awards.
Click here for more vintage Academy Award photos
Photo: Los Angeles Times
Forget the films, what about the food? Master chef Wolfgang Puck will once again take up kitchen duty for the Academy Awards this year, taking responsibility for the post-Oscars Governors Ball. If serving a multi-course meal to 1,600 guests doesn’t sound like a tough assignment, consider this:
The kitchen staff will have to wrap 2,750 dates in bacon, boil 6,000 chestnut tortellini, de-vein 7,500 shrimp and shuck 1,300 farmed oysters. And that’s just for a handful of the nearly four dozen separate dishes that Puck’s chefs will hand off to the waiters.
Read more on the labor of love for Puck and his staff, or just spend your time staring at food like we ended up doing.
Photos: Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times
Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment: This isn’t 148 years late - it took an investigation spurred by the film “Lincoln,” for Mississippi residents to realize that they hadn’t, in the eyes of archivists, formally banned slavery.
The state initially refused to ratify the amendment back in 1865, and it took until 1995 for the state legislature to finally jump on board with the rest of the country. But no one had notified the U.S. archivist, and without that step, the ratification was never fully official.
For more on the strange series of events, head over to Nation Now.
Photo: David James / DreamWorks
![In defense of on-screen torture: Mark Boal, screenwriter of the Oscar-nominaed “Zero Dark Thirty,” spoke candidly at an event held at Loyola Marymount University, defending the film’s highly-controversial depiction of torture.
“We’ve been accused of defending torture because there are disagreements in some quarters as to exactly which detainee undergoing exactly which form of interrogation first produced the lead that led to [Osama] Bin Laden and thus … we shouldn’t have included it,” Boal said. “I can’t understand the logic to that. If we left the torture out, we’d be whitewashing history. Interrogations were clearly part of how this lead developed.”
Read more of Boal’s remarks here, or read through “Zero Dark Thirty” director Kathryn Bigelow’s Times-exclusive defense of the film.
Photo: Columbia Pictures](http://24.media.tumblr.com/910e20d151164cba18d2a0fb243a356d/tumblr_mhteepuCIW1qzss4xo1_500.jpg)
In defense of on-screen torture: Mark Boal, screenwriter of the Oscar-nominaed “Zero Dark Thirty,” spoke candidly at an event held at Loyola Marymount University, defending the film’s highly-controversial depiction of torture.
“We’ve been accused of defending torture because there are disagreements in some quarters as to exactly which detainee undergoing exactly which form of interrogation first produced the lead that led to [Osama] Bin Laden and thus … we shouldn’t have included it,” Boal said. “I can’t understand the logic to that. If we left the torture out, we’d be whitewashing history. Interrogations were clearly part of how this lead developed.”
Read more of Boal’s remarks here, or read through “Zero Dark Thirty” director Kathryn Bigelow’s Times-exclusive defense of the film.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
The last time Meryl won an Oscar, we weren’t even born yet. That was April 11, 1983.
And now: Oscar No. 3, nearly 29 years later. We interviewed her this past December.
Photo by Kevin Winter (Getty)
Also part of the “not even born when Meryl last won an Oscar” club.
test reblogged from washingtonpoststyle
Just who are the academy voters? An L.A. Times study of Oscar voters finds that their demographics are much less diverse than the moviegoing public. Academy leaders say they want to diversify.
Even inside the movie industry, intense speculation surrounds the academy’s composition and how that influences who gets nominated for and wins Oscars. The organization does not publish a membership list.
Photo: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, seen here at its first organizational meeting in 1927, remains largely white and male. Credit: Hulton Archive / Getty Images
The scene that got them the nomination: Producers for the films that received the top 10 acting nominations show us the scenes that got their stars nominated for an Academy Award.
