On behalf of all of those who have stood together in their shock that Tony Harris is a major newscaster in the United States (see the long list of comments), I would like to officially welcome Stephen Colbert to the club.  Apparently Tony Harris was appalled that Colbert had a treadmill in the space station named after him (THAT appalls him?).  Colbert’s response is great.   Go to the last 30 seconds to see the Harris bit.

This track is genius.  I love that Eminem just lays out all of his personal stuff in his songs, pre-empting anyone who wants to retaliate against him - “if I’m embarrassing me I’m embarrassing you.”  It seems like Mariah has a lot more to hide than he does…

It’s being reported that Hugh Jackman will host this year’s Academy Awards.  They claim it’s a new look for the Oscars.  

I guess he’s “classy”, but I’m kind of partial to the idea that the host is funny and, well, entertaining?

Hugh Jackman fans:  feel free to defend him.

The New York Times ran a story this weekend on Angelina Jolie titled “The Mommy Track”.   The article discusses her menagerie of children, the “Brangelina” effect, her upcoming Clint Eastwood-directed movie “The Changeling”, but also her strange place in Hollywood.  Citing her ability to become an A-list female actor without doing any romantic comedies, the author wrote: “Nobody is ever likely to call her America’s Sweetheart”.  

When I’ve had discussions about Jolie with people I’ve been surprised at the vehemence of some of the reactions.  Mostly the argument seems to be whether she has created and manipulates the media machine around her, or whether it’s far beyond her control.  Personally, I think if she and Brad can auction off some pictures of their Bennetton-like family with proceeds going to a charity, then more power to them.  Of course, I don’t think you get to their status without some large egos helping you get there, but still, they seem relatively genuine about their various causes, and the article makes it sound like being a parent is more important to Jolie than being a movie star.  Or is it all just to sell movies?   Thoughts?

Well, after watching a pretty ho-hum Tony Awards the other night, there isn’t much to tell. Hooray for “In the Heights,” which seems to be loved by all. Boo for “The Little Mermaid,” which was made into a laughing stock at the awards show when the director of “August: Osage County” mocked it in her acceptance speech.

It was even worse when we had to watch an excerpt with Ariel on those sneaker-skate things that annoying kids wear at the mall on Saturdays.

But, the best and worst dressed list was as easy as 1-2…uh, just two.

BEST: Marisa Tomei in her rad red dress (see Christine Baranski in a hot red number too):

(photo - NYTimes.com)

WORST: Whoopi Goldberg in the Seinfeld puffy shirt (I had hoped that got tossed when the show ended, but apparently Whoopi somehow got dibs):

Doesn’t Rachel Weisz look totally like Kiera Knightley on the cover of Vogue’s Living special issue?

Poor Mr. Knut.

One of his keepers has revealed to a German tabloid that the bear has become a “publicity addicted psycho.” That seems like rather judgmental language, don’t you think? I mean, it’s not his fault. What is so sad is that his size now makes it dangerous for him to interact with humans, so it seems he has been placed in isolation and is not permitted contact with the handler who raised him. I think the fact that the zookeeper would call Knut a “psycho” at all speaks volumes about this situation. He was raised as a human and now, apparently, he suffers from human mental illnesses. Here we have evidence of our youth and beauty obsession destroying an animal’s mental health. If only he hadn’t been so cute! He was cursed by his irresistible good looks which, sadly, have faded with the onset of adolescence. Can you believe that it has even become dangerous for a bear to be famous? I just hope the Berlin Zoo uses some of those millions that they made off of him to send him to a place where he might have hope of forming bonds with his own kind.

He wants love and a normal life, just like Britney.

We continue the countdown to Oscar Night with a look at the nominees. For today, let’s look at Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. (For a printable list of nominees click here).

My movie-going has been a bit lax for the past few months, so I haven’t seen all of the nominees. I’ll make some comments where I can, and make my best guess for who I think will win (or should win), but feel free to put in your two cents (and also mention who else should have been nominated).

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• George Clooney in “Michael Clayton”
  • I haven’t seen this, but I’ve heard good things. But there’s no way George is winning this one.
• * Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”
  • The movie was amazing, and so was Daniel Day-Lewis. Some have criticized him for repeating his “Gangs of New York” role, but I think this role was much more nuanced. He won once for “My Left Foot”, and got nominated for “In the Name of the Father” and “Gangs of New York” and I think he gets another. Besides this one, I’ve only seen Eastern Promises, but the buzz on all of the other movies just isn’t as strong. And really, this should go down as one of the all-time great performances on film.
• Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
• Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah”
  • Again, haven’t seen it but I’ve heard good things. He may be playing similar characters, but he’s been getting some great roles lately (with this and No Country).
• Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises”
  • Viggo really was superb in this movie, but I think the movie wasn’t widely seen.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
• * Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men”
  • I have no clue why he’s in the supporting category - there must be a complicated algorithm to determine it, but I figured he and Daniel Day-Lewis would fight it out for the Best Actor prize. Since he’s here, he’ll get this one easily. One of the most terrifying characters we’ve seen in awhile.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War”
  • I liked him here, but the movie was pretty bad, which I think made Phil seem even better.
• Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild”
• Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton”

I really haven’t done a good job of seeing these movies, particularly in the supporting role category. So I think my two choices are pretty standard. Can anyone add some comments? I’m especially curious about the Casey Affleck nomination, and what you thought of “Into the Wild”.