Dame Helen Mirren Remembers Dame Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Helen Mirren shares her personal thoughts and feelings about Dame Elizabeth Taylor.
Read More »Robert Altman Shares his Filmmaking Philosophy
From the vaults: Arriving at the 59th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 2002, Robert Altman explains his filmmaking philosophy.
Read More »Robert Altman Honored
“COME BACK TO THE FIVE & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN” RESTORED WITH HFPA FUNDING
Cher always considered it her best work in film, still a trove full of her fondest memories as an actress. On March 3rd, 2011, 7:30 pm, at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum, UCLA Film & Television Archive will present the restored version of Robert Altman‘s 1982 classic “Come to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, his big screen adaptation of Ed Graczyk’s play. The film, beautifully polished and re-mastered thanks to the generous funding of Martin Scorsese‘s The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is part of the 2011 UCLA Festival of Preservation. Kathryn Altman will attend the premiere along with Karen Black, who acted in the all-girls cast along with Cher, Sandy Dennis and Kathy Bates, among others.
The restoration of Altman’s ode to middle-aged women is just the first step in a longer and larger project to preserve Mr. Altman’s entire body of work and his artistic legacy. “Come Back to the Five & Dime” tells the reunion of a group of friends at the same five-and-dime store they use to hang out in a small Texas town 20 years back, at a time when the young, sexy and already legendary actor – Dean – was shooting “The Giant”, and they founded “The James Dean Fan Club”. The women are now melancholic and jaded about life, passions, aspirations, and Altman skillfully captures their insecurities, their rants for how things turned out, their anger for all the lost opportunities.
Cher, who came back as well after many years to the big screen with the musical “Burlesque”, played the same character on stage, before being cast by Altman in the movie adaptation of “Jimmy Dean”. “I loved doing the play and I loved doing the film,” Cher said at the time of release of the movie in her Hollywood Foreign Press conference, in 1982. “I realized that singing on stage is not that different than acting on stage, and very different from television because there is not a lot of depth in television and you don’t have to go very far into yourself. To do the play and to do the film was a lot more gratifying for me because I wanted to see if I could go any further than I had always gone.” More recently she said, in talking about “Come Back to the Five & Dime”: “Altman guided us through the plot and the vagaries of the various characters like a magician wearing a hat full of tricks. His quiet sensibility inspired me, making me wanting to work more in the movies, thus becoming a better actress – a more patient one for sure.”
Read More »Robert Altman’s 1982 Classic Restored
On March 3rd, 2011, 7:30 pm, at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum, UCLA Film & Television Archive will present the restored version of Robert Altman‘s 1982 classic “Come to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, his big screen adaptation of Ed Graczyk’s play. The film, beautifully polished and re-mastered thanks to the generous funding of Martin Scorsese‘s The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is part of the 2011 UCLA Festival of Preservation.
Cher in “Come Back to the Five & Dime”
Cher always considered it her best work in film, still a trove full of her fondest memories as an actress. On March 3rd, 2011, 7:30 pm, at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum, UCLA Film & Television Archive will present the restored version of Robert Altman‘s 1982 classic “Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, his big screen adaptation of Ed Graczyk’s play. The film, beautifully polished and re-mastered thanks to the generous funding of Martin Scorsese‘s The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is part of the 2011 UCLA Festival of Preservation. Kathryn Altman will attend the premiere along with Karen Black, who acted in the all-girls cast along with Cher, Sandy Dennis and Kathy Bates, among others.
Read More »
Glee and Social Networking at The Golden Globes
By Husam “Sam” Asi
There was plenty of Glee in Hollywood where the TV show about a song-filled high school walked away with all the TV comedy awards at the Golden Globes – the first major awards ceremony of the year.
Glee team celeberate their Golden Globe
The British comedian and creator of The Office, Ricky Gervais, hosted an evening of glitz and glamour for a second successive year, opening with a nod to the increasing number of 3D films, and suggesting that the only film of the past year without 3D characters was The Tourist. This raised the question of how the film got three nominations – was it because the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association just wanted to spend the evening with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp? It certainly couldn’t be the fabled bribes, he suggested, because who would see tickets to a Cher concert as a bribe? “It’s not 1975,” he quipped.
After Gervais had started digging his comedic claws into more of Hollywood’s favorites, the evening launched with Christian Bale taking the Best Supporting Actor trophy for playing the drug-addicted brother of boxing champion Micky Ward in The Fighter. The film also picked up the prize for best supporting actress; Melissa Leo played the mother of the pair.
The top acting prizes went to Colin Firth for playing King George VI in the drama The King’s Speech, Natalie Portman for the ballet drama Black Swan, Paul Giamatti for the comedy Barney’s Version and Annette Bening for the lesbian comedy The Kids Are All Right, which also took the prize for best comedy. Best Drama went to The Social Network, which also took the prizes for best director, for David Fincher. Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay for the same film also won him a Golden Globe. And the film picked up the best score, for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The HFPA’s annual awards ceremony also honors the best achievement in television, where, as in the film categories, the main prizes are handed separately to dramas and comedies. Katey Segal’s performance in Sons of Anarchy earned her the best actress award for drama. Steve Buscemi took the best acting award for Boardwalk Empire, which also won best TV drama. Glee took the prize for Best Comedy series, as well as best supporting actor in a comedy, for Chris Colfer, and Jane Lynch was the best supporting actress for the same show.
The best actress in a comedy series was Laura Linney, the star of The Big C. And Jim Parsons, from Big Bang Theory, was awarded the Golden Globe for best actor in a TV comedy.
Bridging the gap between television and films are categories for mini series and TV movies. Olivier Assayas’ biopic of the terrorist Carlos the Jackal, Carlos, won the main prize in this category, with Al Pacino taking the Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or TV movie for playing another real-life character, the euthanasia doctor Jack Kevorkian, in the TV movie You Don’t Know Jack. The best actress in this category went to Claire Danes for her portrayal of another real person, the Autistic Author-scientist Temple Grandin.
Other awards included Toy Story 3 for Best Animated Feature, the Danish film In A Better World took Best Foreign Language Film, Cher‘s song You Haven’t Seen The Last of Me was Best Song, for Burlesque.
The highest point of the ceremony, however, was when Robert De Niro got up on the stage to receive his Cecil B. DeMille award from Matt Damon, who said that he hadn’t heard of De Niro before he was recruited to work with him on The Good Shepherd.
The audience was treated to a three-minute montage of his best work. Subsequently, De Niro joked that this montage made him look as if he had made nothing but hits.
In their speeches, tonight’s winners expressed their gratitude to their collaborators and to The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for recognizing their work and their talent.
The Golden Globe Awards, which are considered by many in the industry as significant indicators for next month’s Oscars, are voted for by the 85 HFPA members, who also organise the ceremony and co-produce the show with Dick Clark Productions. More than 19 million tuned in to watch the show last year on NBC, and many expect the number to be even higher this year.
The Golden Globe Awards ceremony is the biggest and most glamorous event in the Hollywood calendar. Earlier, more than 200 stars from Hollywood and beyond marched along the red carpet, dressed in their finest gowns and dripping with diamond and other jewellery, as they were showered by camera flashes and their names were shouted by screaming fans.
Surrounded by so many of their peers, the stars seemed to be at ease, loitering around the ballroom or sipping drinks in the outdoor bar and chatting with colleagues and friends. In fact, the Golden Globes ceremony is one of those rare events where one bumps into stars more than into mortals. You become so used to it that I didn’t raise an eyebrow when I saw Robert De Niro in the mirror waiting behind me to wash his hands in the restroom.
Right after the ceremony, six parties, held by different studios, kick off in different venues inside the Beverly Hilton hotel, honoring their nominees and tonight’s winners.
The ceremony is over but the party has just begun. The Golden Globes event is undoubtedly the best party in town.
Read More »ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET
The 68th Golden Globes is coming your way live from the red carpet in just a few short days!
The show will be broadcast nationwide live in HD on NBC Sunday, January 16, 2011 from 5:00-8:00 (PST)/8:00-11:00 (EST) from the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
HFPA ANNOUNCES ELECTION OF TWO NEW MEMBERS: HUSAM ASI AND KATHERINE TULICH
Contact:
Keleigh Thomas/Ken Sunshine
Sunshine Sachs & Associates
thomas@sunshinesachs.com
310.275.3222
BEVERLY HILLS, CA (May 7, 2010) – The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) President, Philip Berk, announced today that two journalists have been elected as new members of the organization: Husam Asi and Katherine Tulich.
Asi, who writes for the UK Screen and Al Quds Al Arabi (UK), and Tulich, who writes for Russian publications St. Petersburg Times and Drugoe Kino, were voted in at the membership meeting May 6, 2010.
The two new members join the association’s current roster of 83 active members.
About the Hollywood Foreign Press Association:
Founded in the 1940’s during World War II, the HFPA was originally comprised of a handful of LA based overseas journalists who sought to bridge the international community with Hollywood, and to provide distraction from the hardships of war through film. Sixty-six years later, members of the HFPA represent 55 countries with a combined readership of 250 million in some of the world’s most respected publications. Each year, the organization holds the third most watched awards show on television, the Golden Globe Awards, which have enabled the organization to donate more than $10.5 million to entertainment related charities and scholarship programs.
