NEW "NINE" POSTERS

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ANIMATED SHORT: THE 2010 NOMINEES

Beverly Hills, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards. Thirty-seven pictures had originally qualified in the category:

•The Cat Piano, Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation)
•French Roast, Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films)
•Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films)
•The Kinematograph, Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image)
•The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte), Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon)
•Logorama, Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit)
•A Matter of Loaf and Death, Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.)
•Partly Cloudy, Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
•Runaway, Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
•Variete, Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions)

LAUREN BACALL FINALLY GETS HER OSCAR

LOS ANGELES – Without the burden of a live worldwide broadcast, members of the film academy threw themselves a lively yet relaxed dinner party to honor the first Oscar winners of the season.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences broke with tradition and presented its honorary Oscars off-camera Saturday night, months ahead of the televised ceremony in March.

Actress Lauren Bacall, B-movie king Roger Corman and "Godfather" cinematographer Gordon Willis each received Oscar statuettes during the black-tie banquet at the Grand Ballroom above the Kodak Theatre, the same room where the annual post-Academy Awards Governors Ball is held.

In addition, producer John Calley was honored with the Irving J. Thalberg Memorial Award, recognizing career accomplishments that include "Catch-22," "The Remains of the Day" and "The Da Vinci Code."

Each of the recipients was chosen by the academy's Board of Governors.

Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening, Morgan Freeman and Steven Spielberg were among the 600 invited guests at the inaugural Governors Awards event.

"We're gathered here together, all artists, celebrating excellence without any television cameras — isn't it great?" said veteran producer Norman Jewison.

Warren Beatty agreed: "It's so much better ... that nobody's worrying whether 36.5 million people are watching us or 29.2," he said.

Guests drank Champagne and dined on filet mignon as each honoree was celebrated with tributes, toasts and a generous montage of film clips — leisurely elements not possible in previous years when special-Oscar presentations were built into the already-crowded Oscar broadcast.

Corman, 83, was the first to be honored Saturday night. The longtime producer-director was lauded for being a champion of independent and efficient filmmaking and for promoting women to positions of leadership long before it was popular.

Quentin Tarantino said the man behind films such as "Bloody Mama" and "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes," inspired him to become a filmmaker. He praised Corman for his "undeniable impact on the industry, both as a business and as an art form."

"The movie lovers of planet earth thank you," Tarantino said.

Ron Howard credited Corman with giving him his start as a filmmaker, saying working for Corman was "a badge of honor."

Corman's advice to his peers? "Keep gambling. Keep taking chances."

Kirk Douglas honored Bacall, his friend for more than 60 years, and confessed that he once tried to seduce her — "without success."

Anjelica Huston presented the award to the legendary actress, saying she "defines what it means to be a great actress and also a huge movie star" and praising her "steadfastness, honesty and extraordinary beauty."

Ever feisty, the 85-year-old actress shooed away an escort who tried to help her to the podium to accept her Oscar.

She spoke of her late husband, "my great love" Humphrey Bogart, and her dashing leading men: Douglas, Gregory Peck and Henry Fonda.

Bacall said she did not expect to receive an Oscar but gratefully welcomed the honor.

"The thought when I get home that I'm going to have a two-legged man in my room is so exciting," she quipped.

Willis, whose cinematography credits include "The Godfather," "Annie Hall" and "All the President's Men," was honored for his decades of work. He was nominated for an Oscar twice: For "Zelig" in 1983 and "The Godfather: Part III" in 1990.

Presenter Jeff Bridges noted Willis' "unsurpassed mastery of light, shadow, color and motion."

Willis, 78, told his industry peers, "Do your best. Take care of your kids."

Health concerns kept Calley from accepting his award in person, so seven previous Thalberg Award winners did it for him, including Spielberg, Jewison, Beatty and George Lucas. They lauded Calley for his willingness to support creativity throughout his career.

"Please know how proud all of us are to welcome you to our ranks," Spielberg said.

Though not televised, the Governors Awards were taped and portions will be shown during the 82nd annual Academy Awards on March 7, 2010.

"NINE" WITH PRECIOUS DANIEL AND PENELOPE

AND FINALLY NOW THEY TALK ABOUT "BROTHERS"

Our blog was the first one to talk about the Oscar hopes of BROTHERS. It's good that others jointed the discussion.
From The Odds: Do we have another surprise late contender ready to join “Crazy Heart” in some major Oscar races? The next couple of weeks will tell the tale, but at the moment director Jim Sheridan’s “Brothers” is starting to look as if it may become a legitimate player.

On Sunday night, the military-themed film, which is based on Danish director Susanne Bier’s award-winning 2004 movie “Brodre,” screened for members of the Directors Guild at the DGA Theater on Sunset Boulevard. The next day, the Envelope’s Pete Hammond (who moderated the post-screening discussion with Sheridan) posted an item wondering why no Oscar bloggers were talking about the film -- whereupon Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells quickly pointed out that Lionsgate hadn’t screened the film for the folks Hammond was chiding.

(For a film that hasn’t been finished yet, like “Nine” or “Avatar,” a scarcity of screenings isn’t necessarily a warning sign; for a film that’s been in the can for a year, as “Brothers” has been, it can be a red flag.)

But the DGA screening has apparently set in motion a string of events that will culminate in next week’s launch of a full-fledged best-picture campaign for the film, and a best-actor push for star Tobey Maguire, who plays a soldier presumed missing in Afghanistan until he returns home to his wife (Natalie Portman) and younger brother (Jake Gyllenhaal).

To hear producer Ryan Kavanaugh tell it, the filmmakers proceeded cautiously because of uncertainty about the new landscape for Oscar campaigning. “With the change in Academy policy, we really wanted to let the film speak for itself before we made the decision whether or not to campaign,” he says. “If it got the momentum it needed once we showed it, we would do everything we could to support it as much as we can. And it certainly seemed to get that momentum.”

Others at the Sunday screening say that the film was followed by a standing ovation, a rarity for the DGA, and an enthusiastically-received 45-minute Q&A session in which a common theme was questioners wondering why the film didn’t have a higher profile in the awards race.

Between the raves from the DGA (as a group, a fairly accurate Oscar precursor) and positive comments from a few critics who’d seen the film, Sheridan’s camp reportedly decided a full campaign was in order. Lionsgate was in the thick of its campaign for Oscar frontrunner “Precious,” and was said to be surprised that the “Brothers” filmmakers suddenly wanted to shift into Oscar mode as well – but the company quickly agreed to do so.

A full slate of screenings begins next week, with Academy-geared television spots to follow. Lionsgate’s awards website now promotes the film in a wide range of categories including best picture, best director, best actor, supporting actor and actress, screenplay, and song for U2’s “Winter.” The song certainly sounds apt (“The broken and the bruised/The young and the used/The sure and confused/All here”) -- and while Kris Tapley speculates that the track may run afoul of the music branch’s strict rules because it was recorded during the band's "No Line on the Horizon" sessions, Kavanaugh says that it was "without question" written specifically for the film.

The film opens December 4.

"NINE": A CALL FROM THE VATICAN

And now the lyrics of A CALL FROM THE VATICAN from Oscar contender NINE:

Carla:
Guido...

Guido (Spoken):
Pronto.

Woman (Spoken):
Signore Contini. Telephone. Go ahead.

Carla:
Guido...
I was lazing around my bedroom
When an idea occured to me I thought you might be
Wondering about.
Guido...
Who's not wearing any clothes?
I'm not, my darling.
Who's afraid to kiss your toes?
I'm not.
Your mama, dear, is blowing into your ear
So you'll get her loud and clear.
I need you to squeeze me here
And here
And here...

Luisa (Spoken):
Is something wrong?

Guido (Spoken):
Um, I'm not sure. It's about my film. It's from the Vatican.
Go head, mon Signore.

Carla:
Coochie coochie coochie coo...
I've got a plan for what I'm gonna do to you
So hot!
You're gonna steam and scream
And vibrate like a string I'm plucking.
Kiss your fevered little brow,
Pinch your cheeks till you say "ow".
And I can hardly wait to show you how
Guido
Who won't care if you come to me tired and over-worked?
I won't, bambino!
Who know's a therapy to beat what you can get from me?
I don't!
But this will have to be enough for now.
Guido...
Ciao.
(Spoken) I love you, Guido.

MAYBE MERYL IS THE BEST ACTRESS FRONTRUNNER

I was wondering... This year we have, so far, two unknown actresses as Oscar contenders: Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe. Why we can't consider Meryl Streep the frontrunner? America loved Julia Child and Academy loves a biopic role. And we know how Meryl nailed the role of Julia Child. Just give her the third Oscar. By the way, you know what is the biggest box-office grossing movie in United Kingdom? MAMMA MIA.

NEW EW COVER: TAYLOR LAUTNER, KRISTEN STEWART AND ROBERT PATTINSON TOGETHER

Check the new cover of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, my favorite magazine. Again... TWILIGHT... That's too much. We want real movie and real actors on the cover.

ANIMATED FEATURE WILL HAVE 5 NOMINEES

Beverly Hills, CA (November 11, 2009) — Twenty features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards®.

The 20 submitted features are:

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”
“Astro Boy”
“Battle for Terra”
“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
“Coraline”
“Disney's A Christmas Carol”
“The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
“Mary and Max”
“The Missing Lynx”
“Monsters vs. Aliens”
“9”
“Planet 51”
“Ponyo”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure”
“A Town Called Panic”
“Up”

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” “The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Planet 51,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “The Secret of Kells” and “A Town Called Panic” have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and meet all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process.

Under the rules for this category, a maximum of 5 features can be nominated in a year in which the field of eligible entries numbers at least 16.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

GWYNETH WILL PLAY NICOLE'S LOVER IN TRANSSEXUAL BIOPIC

Uau, I love the title of this post :) A drem can true. Gwyneth Paltrow will play Nicole Kidman's lover in a transsexual biopic (THE DANISH GIRL).

From VARIETY: Gwyneth Paltrow will replace Charlize Theron in the movie adaptation of David Ebershoff's novel about one of the first people to undergo a sex-change operation.

Theron recently quit the controversial film, in which she was slated to play the wife of artist Einar Wegener - opposite Nicole Kidman.

Paltrow will now play Kidman's onscreen wife, Greta, in The Danish Girl. Kidman will also produce the film, which is being directed by Thomas Alfredson.

No reason was given for Theron's departure.

AND THE OSCAR NOMINEES WILL BE...

According to Entertainment Weekly, these movies and actors are the serious contenders.

BEST PICTURE
- THE HURT LOCKER
- INVICTUS
- THE LOVELY BONES
- PRECIOUS
- UP IN THE AIR
Other possibilities
AVATAR
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
NINE
A SERIOUS MAN
UP

BEST DIRECTOR
- Kathryn Bigelow, THE HURT LOCKER
- Peter Jackson, THE LOVELY BONES
- Jason Reitman, UP IN THE AIR
Other possibilities
James Cameron, Avatar
Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Lee Daniels. Precious
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Rob Marshall. Nine

BEST ACTOR
- George Clooney, UP IN THE AIR
- Colin Firth, A SINGLE MAN
- Morgan Freeman, INVICTUS
Other possibilities
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Robert De Niro, Everybody's Fine
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

BEST ACTRESS
- Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION
- Gabourey Sidibe, PRECIOUS
- Meryl Streep, JULIE & JULIA
Other possibilities
bbie Cornish, Bright Star
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Penélope Cruz, Broken Embraces
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Alfred Molina, AN EDUCATION
- Stanley Tucci, THE LOVELY BONES
- Christoph Waltz, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Other possibilities
Alec Baldwin, It's Complicated
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Anna Kendrick, UP IN THE AIR
- Mo'nique, PRECIOUS
- Julianne Moore, A SINGLE MAN
Other possibilities
Mariah Carey, Precious
Penélope Cruz, Nine
Judi Dench, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Susan Sarandon, The Lovely Bones

"PRECIOUS": BOX OFFICE CHAMP

From Hitfix.com: The journey of Lee Daniels' "Precious: Based on Push a Novel by Sapphire" continues to astound. In a stunner, "Precious" made box office history this weekend by posting the highest per screen average for a film in more than 10 theaters. The acclaimed drama made $1.8 million in only 18 theaters for an eye-popping $100,000 per screen average.

Historically, the only live action films to ever have a bigger per screen were "Dreamgirls" and "Brokeback Mountain," but both those films debuted on only three and five screens with averages of $126,000 and $105,000 respectively. The more screens you make available, the lower your per screen usually is. In fact, the difference between 3 and 10 screens can be over a 50% drop. That what makes "Precious'" 18 screen debut so remarkable.

Ironically, Lionsgate opened on so many screens because it wanted to test how the picture was going to play in primarily upscale and African-American markets before deciding how fast and where to expand across the country. For example, in Los Angeles the film played at both The Landmark and Arclight Theaters, but also at the more predominantly urban Bridge and Magic Johnson's theaters. Obviously, it did well everywhere and without an initial massive media buy. Oh, well, there was all that Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry press wasn't there? Guess that might have helped a bit.

In any event, "Precious" wide release pattern is coming into clearer view. According to AP, the drama will expand this Friday to Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas and Houston. The film will then go nationwide on Nov. 20.

Come again?

That's right, "Precious" is going to open nationwide against none other than expected world beater "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." In many ways it's a very smart decision on Lionsgate's part. The film can dominate the African-American and upscale audiences that aren't "New Moon's" primary demographic as well as siphon off older audiences that may not be inclined to see the "Twilight" sequel. Moreover, because of all the buzz and word-of-mouth, "Precious" should be one of those "three times a year" pictures that finds infrequent moviegoers making their way to the neighborhood multiplex. And "Twilight" fans shouldn't be worried, "Precious" won't make a dent in "New Moon's" opening weekend mammoth gross. There is more than enough room for both pictures to thrive. Especially as a $10-15 million opening would be a strong debut for what should be a long run through Thanksgiving and beyond with expected year-end awards continuing to fuel interest.

Still, considering all the hardships both Daniels and his cast went through to make "Precious" this must seem unreal to Daniels, his producers and cast. Something suggests their wild ride is clearly not over yet.

So much for that "supposed" Oprah and Tyler Perry backlash.

"PRECIOUS" IS NOW THE BEST PICTURE FRONTRUNNER

PRECIOUS continues to impress everyone and emerges as the frontrunner, the one to beat. After New York Times and New York magazine rave the movie (and made intersting profiles on Gabourey Sidibe), it time the time of Entertainment Weekly. They gave PRECIOUS an A. Read the review:

Part of the great power of movies is that they can take us perilously close to the life of someone we might otherwise feel perilously far from. The title character of Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is a hushed, damaged, morbidly obese 16-year-old African-American girl from the lower depths of Harlem. It's 1987, and Claireece Precious Jones is poor and ignorant, a depressed, withdrawn shell of a human being, with a face so inexpressive it might be a visor clamped down over her features.

Gabourey Sidibe, the startling newcomer who plays Precious, is actually softly pretty, with catlike eyes that narrow into a tensely focused glare. Precious speaks to us in voice-over (we hear her flowery notions of running off with a math teacher to suburban Westchester), and the film keeps cutting to her fantasies, which are spangly, TV-addict daydreams in which she whirls around in silk and feather boas, adored by the world. Outside those fantasies, Precious can't imagine a life. She rarely talks, never smiles, and hardly even frowns; she looks like it would take too much effort. Sidibe plays her with barely visible tremors of feeling that cue us to what this arrested girl is holding back. She's an almost totally passive protagonist, cut off from everyone, including us.

Yet there's nothing passive about the way the director, Lee Daniels, working from a script by Geoffrey Fletcher, plunges us into the nightmare that is Precious' daily, hidden existence. Sometimes, a movie has to take you down — and I mean down, really far — to lift you up. Precious is that kind of movie. Daniels, a former producer whose credits include Monster's Ball, ushers us into the dingy Harlem flat where Precious lives, and there, amid the dank light and moldy yellow-flower wallpaper, we see the forces that have made her who she is. There are stinging flashbacks of abuse (she's now pregnant, for the second time, by her drug-
addict father), and we witness the Gordian knot of her relationship with her mother, Mary (Mo'Nique), who's a scalding pit of bitterness. Their twisted and tormented co-dependence is harrowing to behold, but it's also as indelible as something out of Tennessee Williams.

In her first dramatic role, the comedian Mo'Nique acts with such force that she burns a hole in the screen. Her Mary is raging and defeated, a woman who treats Precious as a slave — and I don't use the word lightly, since part of the film's power is its perception that these two are living out patterns of cruelty that go back for generations. Their agony has roots. What's terrifying about the abuse here is how casually it's accepted as a fact of life, by both perpetrator and victim. Mary hates her daughter because she thinks that Precious has ''stolen'' her man. Yet she also exploits her as a welfare ticket. How to escape this hell?

One night, the two get a visit from a school administrator, who wants to enroll Precious in a special program for problem students. Quietly, almost instinctively, Precious signs up. The program becomes her pathway out of the madness and into a real life. And if that sounds like a facile feel-good scenario, the way that Daniels stages it, sticking to the merciless outline of Sapphire's novel, it's more like a slow walk of redemption marked by tiny roadside bombs that keep going off.

Precious comes to the attention of a welfare counselor, played by Mariah Carey with an authentically deglammed compassion, and once she's in the class, she starts to wake up. These episodes aren't the usual inspirational claptrap; they're about troubled girls striving, and often failing, to turn themselves around. The more Precious tries to get away from her mother, the more she's pulled back, and the final scene of revelation between them will leave you tearful, shaken, dazed with pity and terror. Precious captures how a lost girl rouses herself from the dead, and Daniels shows unflinching courage as a filmmaker by going this deep into the pathologies that may still linger in the closets of some impoverished inner-city lives. Precious is a film that makes you think, ''There but for the grace of God go I.'' It's a potent and moving experience, because by the end you feel you've witnessed nothing less than the birth of a soul.

A "COMPLICATED" POSTER

MEET OSCAR LATEST CONTENDERS

Some unknown actors lol... Jeff Bridges with CRAZY HEART and Helen Mirren with THE LAST STATION join the Oscar race. When will the race really start? It seems that some horses are missing...

NICOLE KIDMAN TO "GQ": I'VE EXPLORED STRANGE FETISH STUFF

Strange fetish stuff? That has to be something related to Tom Cruise and Scientology...
From Just jared: Nicole Kidman shows off a sexy figure as she opens up the December issue of the UK’s GQ.

“I’ve explored obsession. I’ve explored loss and love in terms of being in a grief-stricken place, I’ve explored strange sexual fetish stuff,” Nicole, 42, said. “I’ve explored the mundane aspect of marriage, and monogamy.”

She also told GQ that for her, marriage to Keith Urban is “a very extraordinary, adventurous place to be: incredibly raw, incredibly dangerous and you’re very much out at sea. You’re exposed. You could drown,” Nicole noted.

Also admitting she’d kept journals during her marriage to Tom Cruise and destroyed them after the divorce, Nicole told GQ, “I burnt most of my journals after I remarried… You’re only going to find out bad things.”

"EW" COVER: MERYL AND ALEC TOGETHER

"BROTHERS": NEW PICS

"NINE" FEVER: NICOLE, MARION, PENELOPE AND KATE ON "VOGUE"

STEVE MARTIN AND ALEC BALDWIN WILL HOST THE OSCARS

I have to ask: what about Meryl too??

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will serve as co-hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards®, Oscar telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced today.

“We think the team of Steve and Alec are the perfect pair of hosts for the Oscars,” said Shankman and Mechanic. “Steve will bring the experience of having hosted the show in the past and Alec will be a completely fresh personality for this event.”

“I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin,” said Martin.

“I don’t play the banjo but I’m thrilled to be hosting the Oscars – it’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Baldwin.

Martin hosted the 73rd and 75th Academy Awards shows, earning an Emmy nomination for the first stint. He has also served as a presenter on the show several times, most recently at the ceremony in February when he appeared with Tina Fey. He is currently touring with the bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers in support of his latest album “The Crow: New Songs for the Five String Banjo.” In 1977 and 1978 Martin won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording. He earned a third Grammy in 2001 in the Best Country Instrumental Performance category. In 2007 Martin earned a Kennedy Center Honor.

Baldwin was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003 for his supporting role in “The Cooler.” That year also marked his most recent appearance as a presenter on the show. Baldwin currently stars as Jack Donaghy on the comedy “30 Rock,” a role for which he has won two Emmys (in 2008 and 2009). Baldwin earned a Tony nomination in 1992 for his performance in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

POLL: WHO SHOULD HOST THE OSCARS?

VOTE TINA FEY!
Again, we have to help the Academy. They don't know yet who should host the next Oscars. Let's help the Academy, suggesting names.

CAN "PRECIOUS" MARIAH CAREY ACT?

We all know how the Academy loves when an actress becomes ugly to a role. Considering ONLY that, Academy can love Mariah Carey in PRECIOUS. But the really question about Mariah and PRECIOUS is: can she really act? All the eyes are on her. Mo'nique and Gabby Sidibe emerge as Oscar contenders (frontrunners?). Mariah can be the weakest link on PRECIOUS and a weakest link can cost, for exemple, the SAG for best ensemble. And we know how the SAG are a good predictor for the Oscar ceremony.

"PRINCE OF PERSIA" TRAILER

JOAN FONTAINE SAYS: "VIRGINITY IS OVERRATED"

Is she cool, or what? ;-)
Vanity Fair made an interview with the Oscar-winning actress in March 2008:

Proust Questionnaire

Joan Fontaine

Seven decades after she began her Hollywood and stage career, Academy Award–winning actress Joan Fontaine, 90, leads a quiet life at her California home, Villa Fontana. Here, the former screen darling ruminates on her beloved dogs, chastity, and doing it all over again.

photograph by A. Clifford Bagwell

March 2008

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Working in my garden while my five A.S.P.C.A. dogs smell the roses … or water them.

What is your greatest fear?
As I lost my Brentwood, California, house and its contents in a firestorm in 1964, I fear the same might happen to Villa Fontana.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Eleanor of Aquitaine, as she was my all-time favorite role, in The Lion in Winter, and which gave me the best reviews of my career.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Buying a car just for my canines.

What is your favorite journey?
Portofino to Capri.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Virginity.

On what occasion do you lie?
When being tactful … or evasive.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“Ah!”

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The English language.

What is your current state of mind?
Contentment.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Recklessness.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impulsiveness.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Gossiping, denigration, chitchat, disloyalty.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Peace and tranquillity.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Losing a child.

What is your most treasured possession?
My house and its three acres of gardens; in the woods.

What is your most marked characteristic?
Independence, sense of humor.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Knowledge and respect, affection without demands.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Intellect, honesty, openness, loyalty.

Who are your favorite writers?Du Maurier, Shakespeare, Dickens, the Brontës, Gwendolyn Brooks.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
D’Artagnan, from The Three Musketeers, who taught me some things were going on in Milady’s boudoir. My mother, when I questioned her at 10 years old, said, “You’ll have to ask someone else.”

Who are your heroes in real life?
Winston Churchill. Alas, no “greats” today, except Mother Teresa.
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
Me again. “Get it right this time!”

What is it that you most dislike?
Noise.

How would you like to die?
In bed—alone.

What is your motto?
“Free at last!”

JOAN FONTAINE: 92ND BIRTHDAY!

Check out this pic of Joan Fontaine after her Oscar victory for Suspicion. On October 22nd the actress turned 92. She was born in 1917 in Tokyo, Japan and is the sole actress to win an Oscar for a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In 1941 Fontaine was Oscar-nommed for playing "The second Mrs. deWinter" in "Rebecca". One year later she took home the Best Actress honors for "Suspicion", in which she played Lina McLaidlaw, who suspects her husband (Cary Grant) of trying to kill her. Fontaine beat out Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Greer Garson and her own sister Olivia de Havilland. "Suspicion" also won Joan Fontaine the New York Film Critics Circle Award. Her last Academy Award nomination came in 1944 for "The Constant Nymph".

MIGHTY MERYL STREEP & ANG LEE

Doesn't this look like a dynamite Oscar-combo?

"NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU"

Just like "Paris, je t'aime", this cinematic homage to one of the great cities of the world, features a delicious cast, directed by a fine group of helmers. The actors: Shu Qi, Ethan Hawke, Julie Christie, Cloris Leachman, Eli Wallach, James Caan, Andy Garcia, Drea de Matteo, John Hurt, Rachel Bilson, Orlando Bloom, Robin Wright Penn, Christina Ricci, Chris Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Bradley Cooper, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman,...
The directors: Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner. I'm already feeling the love.

I LOVE YOU, "NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU"

Just some lovely stills. Rawr!