さて、ほかにも授賞式について明らかになった情報をここでご紹介しますね。まず、今年の授賞式の共同司会を務め、主演男優賞にもノミネートされている俳優のジェームズ・フランコがステージで歌を披露することが明らかになりました。また、今年の授賞式では過去の古き良き名作と新しい名作の融合を意識しているようで、一部の授賞シーンでは、83年の歴史を飾ってきた過去の名作やパフォーマンス、そして時代に敬意を表して、ミニトリビュートが行われるようです。そして、今年のアカデミー賞で掲げているモットーは、「You are invited(あなたも招待者のひとり)」。先月行われたノミネーション発表の場で、式のプロデューサーであるブルース・コーエンとドン・ミッシェルに話を聞く機会があったのですが、この言葉に隠された意味を尋ねました。2人が言うところによると「You are invited」という言葉には、世界中の視聴者たちにとって、より身近で双方向に楽しめる体験にしたいとの思いが込められているのだそう。「家で授賞式を見ている全ての視聴者に、実際にコダックシアターでゲストたちと一緒に式に出席しているかのように“感じて”楽しんでほしい」と話していました。
Hi everyone, I hope you are surviving the cold winter weather! Here in LA we have been having an unusually warm winter, so I guess we are very lucky! Speaking of warm, things are starting to heat up for the Academy AWards now... and it looks like this year will be a very interesting race.
First of all, the movies to look out for in Best Picture seem to definitely be "The Social Network" and "King's Speech".And both movie studios are doing everything they can to campaign to the end for their respective film.It seems that right now, however, "The King's Speech" is on a wave of good luck, and if I were a betting woman, I would definitely say that the odds are in its favor.
This past weekend, of course, the BAFTA was held in London (the British version of the Academy Awards). And "King's Speech" took 7 awards altogether, including Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush, and Best Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter, and also of course, Best Picture. Now how this will all affect the film's performance on Oscar night is yet to be seen. But I DO have a feeling that this movie will make its mark on the Academy Awards this year. Colin Firth is pretty much a given for winning the Oscar for Best Actor.
And now that Geoffrey Rush won Best Supporting Actor at BAFTA, many critics are saying that he could possibly beat out Christian Bale for the award come Oscar night. As for Helena Bonham Carter, I still think that she will lose out to either Melissa Leo OR Amy Adams for Best Supporting Actress. BUT who's to say??!!!?
Now as you probably know, one of the most frustrating things about watching the Academy Awards is sometimes the part where the winners give speeches. Sometimes the winners use their winning speech to talk about things which are not at all "oscar-related" like politics and war....Other times people ramble on for too long, and ignore the time limit that they are given. WELL, this year, in order to avoid all those "mishaps", the Academy sent out a DVD to all 191 nominees...and it's a DVD of advice! The DVD tells everyone that "if you win, keep your speech "short, sharp, and shiny". Actor Tom Hanks even makes an appearance on the DVD, telling everyone to be original, instead of "Just reading a telephone directory of people". He then goes on to use his sense of humor by saying "Looking down to read a long list of names only shows us your bald spot". And in case you were wondering, the winners are allowed 45 seconds on stage to give their acceptance speeches.
Now a few more hints that I have come across..first of all, actor James Franco (who is co-hosting the show, and is nominated in the Best actor category this year) WILL be singing somewhere during Oscar night. And this year, the show's producers will be mixing the old and the new. They will be honoring the 83 yr history by presenting some awards during mini tributes to classic movies, performances, and eras. And this year the motto for Oscar night is "You are invited". I had an opportunity to talk to producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer about this at the Nomination EVent on Jan/25th, and they told me that basically the meaning behind "you are invited" is that they want for it to be more of a "personal and interactive experience" for all their viewers all around the world. And they want for all the viewers who are watching the awards show from home to actually FEEL like they are actually there with everyone, enjoying Oscar Night in the Kodak Theater.
Another interesting story....Actor Colin Firth was recently on the US talk show "Ellen" (which is hosted by famous US comedian and former American Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres), and he was given some lucky underwear for Oscar night by the comedian!!! The underwear was tuxedo-themed, a pair of boxers, complete with white ruffles and a black bow tie in the front!!! When the actor received the underwear, he grinned in delight. Will he be wearing them on Oscar night??? We will have to wait and find out at the red carpet, won't we!!