Hump Day Report: Oscar Night Sunday
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly
As both a film critic and devoted movie buff, I get excited about the “super bowl for movie fans,” the presentation of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, which takes place this Sunday. More often than not I make Veal Oscar and crack open of a bottle of bubbly to enhance my enjoyment of the night. (Check out my predictions here.)
However, the ratings for the telecast have been declining in recent years, as not enough casual movie fans are hanging around to wait for the winners to step to the podium for their golden boys.
The Academy decided this year to try and draw more fans by increasing the best picture nominations from five to ten. The idea was that this would open up the nominations to more mainstream, popular movies. Surveys conducted by the Academy showed that movie fans were tired of seeing movies they didn’t see — and didn’t want to see —winning all the major prizes. Well it worked, as The Blind Side, District 9 and Up joined the expected nominees like The Hurt Locker, Avatar and Inglourious Basterds.

Sandra Bullock
Will The Blind Side win? Not a chance, but Sandra Bullock is the best actress frontrunner for her wonderful performance in the film.
Personally, I think giving out Oscars to movies that were brilliant, even if they weren’t big box office hits, is the way it should be. The ideal behind the Academy Awards is to honor movies that try to do more than earn a boatload of cash. When popular movies are also brilliant examples of artistry, that is the ultimate win win situation for the Academy.
Back in 1998, the success of Titanic, the top grossing movie of all time, gave the Oscar telecast its best ratings in more than 20 years, 57.25 million viewers; by comparison when No Country For Old Men won in 2008, the numbers of viewers was 31.76 million. Both were wonderful, Oscar worthy movies. One was a love story; the other was dark and sad. Dark and sad movies just aren’t going to be major box office hits.
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You would think that Mel Gibson would be on his best behavior, doing publicity for his first major film role since 2002’s Signs. In
Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly




Fans of MTV’s Jersey Shore are a little sad to the see the show air its season finale tonight (Jan. 21) (though a lot of Jersey Shore residents are probably glad to see the controversial show go), but The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson has the perfect remedy. The show will air a pretty hysterical trailer for the fictional Jersey Shore: The Movie tonight (tomorrow morning, whatever). Entertainment Weekly scored an early look at the bit, which stars Mila Kunis, Nick Lachey, Tom Lennon and Super Mario (Ferguson).
When Boardwalk Empire premieres its first episode on HBO, there’s a chance that it may go down in TV history as the most expensive TV Pilot ever. That’s according to a report on E! Online (the website for E! Entertainment television). It seems there’s another report floating out there in cyberspace that the pilot was made for $50 million, which, is like, really a lot of money for a TV episode.